Surprise! I’ve published a new creative non-fiction piece in Issue 9 of Centaur Lit!

“Watching Your Mother Die”

a 400 word CNF piece, published May 1, 2025

“I do not come home. I nestle into a story my mother tells me, of the banyan that could restore life and its keeper Cuội who instructed his wife to water it in his absence, but suffered when the wife forgot and instead urinated on the tree’s roots in a panic, and the banyan grew
grew
grew
wildly, bursting
until Cuội took an axe to tame its bestial branches, and it ascended, floating until the banyan settled on the moon.”

I’m full of gratitude that this weird little piece found a home amongst some amazing writing. Centaur only publishes pieces 400 word and under and in the hybrid-genre space, and I highly recommend you read their other issues.

At 400 words and only 13 sentences, “Watching Your Mother Die” was also a challenge in experimenting with very long sentences. Conciseness and precision is certainly a writing skill, but playing with the lyric of a long sentences and making them work was so energizing for me.

The content warning is in the title 😅 You can read the piece (or listen to me read it!) through the button below.