“It’s said it takes seven years to grow completely new skin cells. To think, this year I will grow into a body you never will have touched.”
—Brett Elizabeth Jenkins, December 21st, 2002
“If you stay we can figure out how long it takes. The way you kiss me around the wrists. Tap messages on my back. Don't say a word. Write to me only in French. Turn the thermostat down to sixty and pad to the kitchen in socks, wrapped up in blankets like secrets. Boil a pot of water. Two cups will do. Come back with tea. Steam will fog between us as we wait under quilts.”
—Brett Elizabeth Jenkins, Waiting For Rain“I bought some string cheese today that expires on your birthday and thought to write you. I was going to say that I cannot understand why your parka has not been bought from the Salvation Army yet (it was a very good parka—it kept you warm that winter we did not have a car), but all I can think to say is that I cannot seem to find a way to say you are gone. ”
—Brett Elizabeth Jenkins, April 6
I bought some string cheese today that expires
on your birthday and thought to write you.
I was going to say that I cannot understand why
your parka has not been bought from the Salvation Army yet
(it was a very good parka—it kept you warm
that winter we did not have a car), but all I can think to say
is that I cannot seem to find a way
to say you are gone.
Brett Elizabeth Jenkins
How to Balance Writing, Reading, Being a Human
spectermagazine.comWriting for Specter Literary Magazine, former fwriction : review contributor Brett Elizabeth Jenkins asks one of the most difficult questions, one I struggle with daily: how do you balance life and writing?
What sucks is that most of us, if we call ourselves writers, don’t get paid for what we love to do. Some of us enjoy teaching, and we do it. And some of us really love it. But some of us just love writing and can’t find anybody willing to dole out tons of money to us just so we can sit in a room all day without having to see other humans.
