Author: Paige Wyatt
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April 4, 1969
By Paige Wyatt My mother leans into my shoulderA towering force shielding me From the way the world has treated herHolding the sky up with her shouldersForced to kneel when she was queen to lesser men She is not diminished now Her strength has bled into meHer hands have worked me and shaped meShe has passed her…
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O, Fortuna
By Paige Wyatt Forty wouldn’t exactly call herself lucky. As she took a sip from her cocktail at the casino bar, she thought about how hard she’d worked to get here. It had taken her a year to save for this vacation with her girls. She’d volunteered for extra shifts at the diner, and she…
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Etched Permanence
By Paige Wyatt TW: this piece discusses body dysmorphia Self-love is a concept that seems to permeate every marketable product or service these days. It feels insincere, overdone, and completely tone-deaf to people that look like me. Love myself, in this economy? With this body? The mirror shows me someone the world says is ugly.…
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That Iron String: Censorship in American Education (an op-ed)
By Paige Wyatt Right now, in my home state of Indiana, a piece of proposed legislation known as Senate Bill 167 has been in committee hearings this past week. As a high school American literature teacher, I have first-hand knowledge of how damaging a bill like this could be. The purpose of this bill is…
Paige Wyatt
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Busy Fingers
By Paige Wyatt CW: Eating disorders/body dysmorphia recovery. It’s best to keep your hands busy during recovery. Especially the first few months: eating used to be a delicately balanced ritual. Your new pursuit must replace the food-measuring and calorie counting. The most frustrating thing is finding what to do with your hands. Watching tv is…
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The Lady in Black
By Paige Wyatt The lonely stretch of Highway 74 is as close to a lover as Dani has known. It’s always there for her when she’s lost her way– a strong presence for as far back as her memory goes. The dark asphalt and faded white lines are a welcome sight at the end of…
Paige Wyatt
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A Sign of Life
By Paige Wyatt The most important rule in the Hermès V handbook is this: answer every alarm. Check every receiver. The Signal is the most vital mission on the space station, and everything else, even life support, is secondary. I live and die by the alarm. I jog the same corridor as my ancestors. Men…
Paige Wyatt
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Rite of Passage
By Paige Wyatt TW/CW: The following piece discusses bullying and disordered eating. The first time a boy ever paid attention to Jamie was in Kindergarten. His name was Daniel and he pushed her into a mud puddle at recess. When she ran to her teacher, tears streaking her mud-stained face, the older woman leaned down…
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The Abyss
By Paige Wyatt There’s a special sort of melancholy in finding things as a deceased loved one left them. The coffee cups dirty in the kitchen sink, the reading glasses on the nightstand, the unfurled throw blanket next to the cold fireplace–all are reminders of a life well-lived, a life worth remembering. This life happened…
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Street Scuzz
By Paige Wyatt I consecrate the sidewalk outside the Circuit Board with my stomach contents, adding to the legendary bodily fluids that have been spilled before me. Sonny, my producer, watches me, his dark-lined eyes fixating on where I ralphed. He knows I’m scared, and in classic Sonny fashion, he tries to distract me.“Hey Scuzz,…
Heartland Society of Women Writers 