Frances S Wren

The Birds of Arizona

There were fewer of them. I haven't looked up the data. What I heard was a texture that had changed. Still alive. Still going. But with something missing from the chorus, and the room sounds thinner.

The Tax

I kept my small bag at my feet because that's the agreement, even when no one's enforcing it. Every one of those choices cost me something small. She didn't pay any of it. The cost is that I notice when other people don't.

The War Room

We have been so comfortable for so long that we have forgotten what the word used to cost.

The Comfort of Enemies

We are handed enemies like fast food. Hot. Cheap. Engineered to satisfy a craving that isn't really hunger. The enemy is not designed to be defeated. The enemy is designed to be maintained. A defeated enemy is a story that ends. A perpetual enemy is a subscription.

What is a Patriot

Patriotism, to me, is refusing to stop looking for that core. Not because it fixes everything. But because the alternative is accepting that the country is simply two camps of enemies. That's a story that serves no one except the people who are incentivized to divide us.

You Deserve It

The language of liberation became the language of the upsell. Buy this because you're worth it. Spend this because you've earned it. I don't know who handed you the permission slip, but check whether they had something to gain.