GrubWrites

Why I Write Vol 14: The Wasps Keep Buzzing

In this series, "Why I Write," members of the Grub community share what compels them to put words onto paper day after day. In this edition, Eileen Tomarchio on writing about change.

I write because wasps made nests in the soffits again.

I write because the neighbors look so young now.

I write because my husband is turning soil in the garden.

I write because my 12th grade English teacher returned my Truffaut paper with a wobble of her chin and press of my hand, and I thought I’d done something wrong.

I write because I caught that woman’s smile drop as soon as she looked away from me.

I write because there’s a hot tub where a tree used to be outside the bedroom window of the house I grew up in.

I write because my daughter studies me when we’re looking at my high school photos.

I write because I can’t remember the name of the boy I was obsessed with at my first job in an office furniture warehouse.

I write because I dread running into people I know at the grocery store.

I write because we have to use hot dog buns for the hamburgers, just because I dread running into people I know at the grocery store.

I write because the news is not good.

I write because I can’t decide if leaves still on treetops in December are a symbol of hope’s reach or a metaphor for class in America.

I write because I get rambling late-night texts from my aging mother, and when she ends with the birds are singing, so I better get to bed, I worry this is the last time I’ll hear from her.

I write because I wake up and can’t feel the arm I’ve slept on, and for a minute I think it’s fallen off.

I write because all this will end someday.

I write because the abandoned nests look like sculpture.

I write because the wasps keep buzzing.

Eileen works as a librarian in a small NJ suburb. She holds an MFA from NYU Film School and is currently revising her first novel, based on an original screenplay. You can find her on Twitter at @eileentomarchio.