kyra's published writing

(originally published on ReWire Me in 2013)

….If “I” tell my “self” to lift my arm in a certain way, or to relax my neck, or to notice my sensations after I’ve told myself to inhale, who exactly is doing the telling? If we’re paying attention, we all have an inner voice. The craving for a sandwich, for example, is part of it; so is the series of decisions around making it (turkey or peanut butter? Whole or half?); and so is the self-punishment (the chastisement if we eat too much of it, or drop it on the floor). It may not speak in whole sentences, but your inner voice is powerful—so learning to cue yourself is a great tool that can be used to break habits, and develop new ones.

(Originally published on Bantergirl in 2017, the title of this post was going to be Why Do I Feel So Guilty All The Time, but then I realized that is boring: mommy blogs all around the internet discuss this at length. The current title is more accurate, anyway.)

One night a few months ago, while I was reading my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter her bedtime stories, she started frantically rubbing her nose. “What’s the matter,” I asked her. She emitted a whine, and then, “I HAVE SOMETHING BROWN AND CRISPY IN MY NOSE.” I have no idea how she knew it was brown, but I said, “That’s called a boogie,” because I don’t believe in being mysterious about language with children.

(The Blow-Job That Saved Brooklyn was published by Penguin Random House Australia, Airmail: Women of Letters, 2015. First performed in 2014 at The Bell House for Women of Letters. Women of Letters shows are structured along a theme; for this particular evening, it was “A Letter to the Night I’d Rather Forget.” Among the performers were Martha Wainwright, Edie Falco, Amelia Lester, Yael Stone and Mary Jane Gibson. )

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A Letter to the Night I’d Rather Forget

Dear N.I.R.F,

It’s been six years. You’d think I’d have forgotten you. But you’re stuck in my memory like an embarrassing little splinter causing outsized sensation, a reminder of what I am made of: weak convictions, and sluttiness of spirit.