7 Minutes
I used to tell my creative writing students when they got stuck to write absolutely anything at all for seven minutes. I personally liked to start with the word Alleluia. (For the ells.) Recently I found out I have cancer in my spine — T4, T5, L3. What to write after that statement is a mystery to me. Alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia alleluia. My father once chased me down the street when I was fifteen for swearing at my brother. That’s when I started taking the train into the city on Saturdays to get away from everyone and everything I was expected to obey — parents, priests, my own scrupulous brain that raked me over the coals every chance it got. Fuck cancer. This paragraph took me a year and seven minutes to write. Alleluia.