Titling has never been my strong suit. To label something so completely, and with such strong SEO appeal? Nah. Won’t be bothered. Also, can’t. Physically incapable.

Who will read this post with a title like “ache:relief,” or my Substack itself for that matter? But, in my small-minded ruminations, from labeling this site as my diary to a duty as a writer, it feels most prudent to turn my flesh inside out for the world. Pardon the grotesqueness, but that is what I am. An ache, followed by absence, ...