chrissy.city

my city, my rules

Category: Atmospheric

  • Charged

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    on a feeling that can’t reach absolution.

  • The Watermelon Dome 🎧

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    The outside smells like when we were talking.  Musty grass. Spring giving into summer faster than most regions. The gardenia tree next door releasing its scent. Or maybe it’s the perfume I wore last year around this time. Warm and lingering on my neck, rose and blueberry and magnolia. In the watermelon dome, our skin…

  • Ujjayi

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    dripping into triangle pose,with strong legs anda twisting core,my palm sliding downsore, soft shinsto reach the floor,and my eyes, which ought to be fixedon my opposite hand,are momentarily fixed on youand the way you like to watch.powder-pink carnationsin a cobalt-bluetranslucent pitcher.your unbuttoned,secondhand-ownedNaked & Famous shirt.the conversation you decide to startwhile I’m in the most difficult…

  • Sierra’s Swarm

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    In the gulf near Beer Can Island (the worst, until Milton made it a reverie), we are surrounded by aquamarine water that mirrors the sky and is made brighter by the razor-sharp yellow of the sun. A black fog of lovebugs hover around the boat. We laugh and hold our drinks above the gentlest waves,…

  • Ernest

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    I see Ernest slowly make his way around the hospital floor. He is (I’m guessing) on his first lap, and it’s shaky. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s not even five a.m. or because his condition is worsening. When you stay in a hospital, time becomes something strange. For me, a visitor, it’s defined…

  • Archived

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    my hair is getting longerand my body keeps getting smallerI make boring appointmentsreceive compliments I want to return,but I don’t want to seem contrived.what I really want?is this parking lot to be empty,so I can dance to this song.I’ll settle for memory mining, though my co-author prefers meto stay silent. he’ll say:shh, get back in…

  • Cenerentola

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    When I was very, very little, I have a memory of being very, very sick and being held by my mom, who was (by all definitions) the best mom in the entire world. She didn’t panic when you were hurt. She flew into calm, focused action. The kind of mom who attacked you with kisses…

  • Cherry + Espresso

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    I pick up Gigion the strip of road with no sidewalkand I unintentionally strut,wearing the short-shorts I slept inand a shirt that the breeze blows through,my chin forward and my shoulders back.I carry her snugin between my ribs and my hip.I can feel her back legsdangling behind meand I suppress a laughthat ends up as…

  • a Bee in the Sand 🎧

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    Collecting moments from a snippet or a slow scene, as if they were rocks I could turn over in my hand and spot their individuality the way the light catches on one or the coarse texture of another. I want to look at them all at once and line them up, just to say: This?…

  • Muovi il culo, è Pasqua 🎧

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    I love the way we sort of free falldown the stairs in the morningsfor our walk.But especiallyon holiday mornings.I think about someone my ageawake to watch their childrenexperience the plastic sensationsof their Easter basketwhile they sip a coffee.But for me, it’s different—and this isn’t to say one version isbetter or worse.I love the stillnessthe normally…

  • Upon our shore?

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    I get a text message from a number I don’t recognize that says: Cameuponourshore and I’m intrigued because WHAT DOES IT MEAN? I must know. So I immediately write back… only to receive a photo of an alligator. I realize, oh! It’s the sweet neighbor whose number I should’ve saved (and still haven’t). There is…

  • Drafts

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    These are some drafts that I rarely revisit or tweak. They all felt complete. 📝 ONE Six years ago, me and three of my girlfriends did yoga on my deck. We each set up our phones at the top of our mats and pressed play. It was the final class from a thirty-day challenge I…

  • Tagging my dreams 🎧

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    I couldn’t find my silky sleep mask and was too tired to look for it, so guess who had trouble sleeping? When I finally fell asleep I was treated to unsettling dreams. I’ve noticed this recurring dream pattern for me, where I’m responsible for my niece. I used to regularly dream of a towering wave.…

  • The Little Drop 🎧

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    In savasana, I am the worst. At a recent yin yoga session, as we rolled up our mats and put away blocks and blankets, our instructor said, “Much better. I can feel the vibration in here is less chaotic.” My main character energy (flaw) assumed I was the chaos. I was certainly feeeeeling it before…

  • Meatball Harry 🎧

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    My emotions are much louder than hers. Sometimes I wonder if I come off as inauthentic, but as I age, so ages my conviction, and I know that I’m not. Next to her, I’m a weeping willow: emotive, romantic, maybe a bit dramatic. But she’s a windswept cypress tree. Uncommon and haunting. They’re not showy…

  • Summer Baby

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    It’s too cold for late March in Tampa. I want to be hot. Not in a climate change kinda way (zero waste / vegan, please). I want my skin exposed to warmth wrapping around me. I want the privilege of knowing that whatever space I put myself in can be cooled when I feel like…

  • 인연 🎧

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    For my Humanities class, I had to pick a film and a scene within it that I thought best summed up the themes. Here’s SOME of my assignment! For no one’s interest, but mine! Allow me to tell you how much I hate/love working full time, balancing movement/fitness classes, the stress of a Trump era…

  • Pass-a-Grille

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    I love shell landscaping instead of grass. I love sea grapes and their round bright yellow green leaves. I love man made sand dollars or sea turtles instead of boring stepping stones that lead to a house with pastel colors and a coordinated mailbox made to also look like a house. I love tackily painted…