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Moving to the Kootenays
After we crossed the Canadian border, exported and imported cars, paid taxes, made note of which crossing had nice officers, filled out...

J L Birch
Oct 81 min read
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Winter Plains of Manitoba
Brown corduroy coat from Simpson-Sears, plastic boots with fake fur zippered ankle to calf, hand-me-down-toque, machine-knit red and blue...

J L Birch
Oct 61 min read
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Fuck Facebook
I had to save myself for what remains of my life Facebook is close to connection, but not connection like a shitty lover who keeps...

J L Birch
Jul 161 min read
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Departure
She’d asked for me. My mother was in palliative care outside of Toronto after being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer - liver, lungs,...

J L Birch
Feb 179 min read
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Final Stretch of Childhood
Midnight, sitting at the kitchen table, the only light in the house, hanging above us. My son, nearly 19, complains about cancel culture, how TikTok and Instagram are judge, jury and executioner!  If you make a mistake and it’s caught on video, millions of people will know and then you’re done. I suggest he turn off the apps. Mom, you’re so old,  you don’t know how life works.  Images shifting at bandsaw speed – shoes, cars, girls, memes of cats, enemy forces – he’s on his

J L Birch
Oct 22, 20242 min read
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Rush Hour
Early morning, The Castro, 1986. I live on a hill, across from California Pacific Medical Center, trees cover gray windowed walls. A...

J L Birch
Jul 30, 20241 min read
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Fear of Water
As we waded in the deep end, my father would pretend to drop me, smiled when I squealed, my small arms gripping his neck. He rowed the...

J L Birch
Jul 30, 20241 min read
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Vallarta
Two weeks I hardly remember, though I’ve only been home three days. The grocer’s name who made us fresh pico de gallo – holding out...

J L Birch
May 25, 20241 min read
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Helpless
Walking the path along the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon, I notice a dark shape on the path ahead, a bird pecking at it, I hope it’s...

J L Birch
Jan 11, 20241 min read
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Falling Away
Now that our son has left home with his Jordans, his blonde girlfriend, the grey folding couch - after I’ve cleared the basement of...

J L Birch
Nov 8, 20231 min read
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2002
I did not see my son’s birth, I missed it by 2 hours. He was born in another state, we traveled 8 hours to say hello. He wore a diaper...

J L Birch
Oct 8, 20231 min read
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Befriending an Alcoholic
Getting sober is like climbing a mountain - a daily choice, one step at a time, over and over - until weeks become months, months, years....

J L Birch
Oct 8, 20231 min read
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I Wanted to be a Boy
I wanted to be a boy like God or Joe Namath, Batman or John Denver – not like Craig who pushed me facedown and shoved snow in my shirt. I...

J L Birch
Oct 8, 20232 min read
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Saturday Afternoon
She had to attend another Inner Light conference, something about struggling to find paradise. We worked all afternoon to surprise her:...

J L Birch
Oct 8, 20231 min read
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Acting Teacher
He said the stage is like a high wire performance. He said actors need to understand the stakes before they climb up there. He said just...

J L Birch
Oct 8, 20231 min read
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Mr. Finnigan
The tiger looks upon my orange boy cat, striped and dirty, and wonders how he landed in such fortune. LET ME ASK YOU, HOW DID YOU GET...

J L Birch
Oct 8, 20231 min read
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Follower
Tired of my snotty nose, my mother put me in school too young. I followed the girls to and from the school yard, knew when to leave for...

J L Birch
Jul 15, 20231 min read
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On Golden Pond
Check out the moment when Jane Fonda tells her dying father, that she thinks he doesn’t like her, she’s lonely, always has been. A cold...

J L Birch
May 4, 20231 min read
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Whatever it Takes
My brother dragged around his loathing like a bag of rocks — riding buses all over the city to avoid being home, joining sports teams – hockey, baseball, soccer — so many games we never attended. He would swing that heart-sized bag with both hands — how he had no boots for his winter paper route, how often she said, I ruined my figure for you? all those forced dinners seated between drunk parents, how our mother could get our father to beat us. Sometimes, my brother took care

J L Birch
Dec 20, 20221 min read
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Women's Music Festival - 1995
I was sure I knew Ferron, having traversed her emotional interior album after album. I knew each breath, supposed every heartache...

J L Birch
Oct 28, 20221 min read
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About Author
J L Birch grew up in Canada and emigrated to the U.S. in 1984. She began writing poetry while attending the University of California, Santa Cruz in the 1990s. She has been a selected reader for In Celebration of the Muse and Poet/Speak in Santa Cruz County and has been published in the Porter Gulch Review. She lives in Denver, Colorado with her partner and their son.
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