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Sages & Pages

Writing Until It Makes Sense


A mix of creative writing and reflective pieces on topics like family, identity, adoption, and race.

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Read some of my personal favorites

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"But she's not Black!"
I overheard my White adopted mother proclaim to my White stepfather after a visit from "concerned' neighbors because they saw a Black kid running around the neighborhood.

Today is June 21st, 2023, it's the summer solstice here in the northern hemisphere. 32 years ago, my 42-year-old adopted mother died in a nursing home that overlooked a church.

It starts out so simple and the first face you see you can't really see, you more sense them. And they usually weep at the joy and miracle that is a child. But for you, they cry because they know that this is just not what they want.

At my suburban school, the White kids would ask me "What are you?" confused that my skin came with the White language in a White community. And a pain in my chest would open up and threaten to swallow me whole. Adopted as an infant I had no real information about my biological parents except my biological mom was White and my biological father was Black, and even that information wasn't certain.

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Set Apart

There was a vase that sat on a high shelf in your sitting room. In intricate patterns, the overlapping colors create shapes that reminded...

What Would Mary Lumpkin Do

For him to give you his children Without choice or pleasure For him to give you his land Born to hold us captive Your eyes must have...

The Shape I'm In

It flattens me It shatters me It shrinks me It drinks me Having made me liquid by Its sheer force of destruction What has it made of me I...

Outcast

When you Are an outcast For what You are Every breath Feels like rebellion

When We Were Close Enough To Touch

I long for a body that was never harmed That didn't recoil from violent words and rough hands Shrinking in fear of being seen I long for...

Covering

I no longer want to change my past or my life. This blanket that's been knitted now brings me comfort. Even when others added...

Chosen Things

I chose to embrace the parts of myself that disgust me. The parts where I judge and hate and snicker. The parts where I slice and dice my...

What I Leave For My Children

How grateful to be part of this tapestry one small thread that remains after death May it reflect love well may it be a story to tell...

62 Degrees in a Minnesotan April

62 degrees and I'm not thinking of my memories Now all I feel is a warm breeze after a winter freeze and the birds in the trees The blue...

In Gratitude of Life

Thank you for the clouds and the air and the breaths that it bears Thank you for the rivers and the trees and the strength that they see...

Childlike

Silence with closed eyes Leads to a memory of violence I sit until I need you again The safe hands of a friend Standing in the shower...

Pain Within, Joy Without

I sit, holding myself Trying to comfort and find hope to soothe the pain out of me Pain and joy erupt from deep inside enveloping waves...

Let Them Leave

All the reasons in the world won't change the truth.

Stay True

The best way to find the true is understanding what is false.

Stand

Do not underestimate the power and strength of love. Of God's love for you.

What I Went Looking For

What happens when don't find what we're looking for? Here's to our messes, may they be beautiful and powerful.

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