• Tripping is “experiencing the effects of a psychedelic substance, or effects reminiscent of the psychedelic experience” (Urban Dictionary).
  • User wonder wingnut uses it in the sentence: “I was tripping on shrooms the other day and I became one with the universe.”
  • Sunstroke makes your heart warm but also makes it stop.
  • Worms are hermaphrodites
  • Like sharks, prayer flags should never be still for too long
  • My friend likes stealing things from truck stops and Ulta
  • VL are the initials my parents gave me. Reversed on luggage, the represent the luxury design brand Louis Vuitton.
  • The gazebo is nice.
  • The EWG recommends consumers avoid sunscreens, lip products and skin lotions that contain vitamin A or retinyl palmitate, also called retinyl acetate, retinyl linoleate and retinol; Ironically, it may cause skin cancer.

Trip

It seemed a bit too simple, I

thought there might be

more,  but it was just earthy

and nutty, an overly hot

day and impending

sunstroke, shiitake earth

worm gums and frayed

Tibetan prayer flags

picking up the breezes, we

carved our names in the

wood with the stolen knife,

shaped like a bullet,

eyesight blurred, I saw

every grain of wood, and I

didn’t stop carving until I

was VL, the heart of the

whole gazebo, didn’t notice

when I sliced my thumb

until I was rocking back

and forth, knees crossed,

getting purple juice in the

cut, Bacchanal, the fruit

tasting better against

sunscreen and sweat,

yellow tooth gap laughs

and an honest to God bald

eagle flying above our raft.

  • Our last big trip was to the Costco in Harrisonburg.
  • I am an earth sign by birthday, but Natasha says I am too emotionally volatile to be a ‘real one.’
  • I had an art history teacher that specialized in the Tibetan culture zone. I did not like her very much.
  • They sell knives shaped like bullets and AR-15s in the gas station/IHOP off Lee Highway
  • It is important to make sure a horse does not overeat calorie-dense grain and consumes more roughage; I can’t give my cat Friskies wet food anymore because he has IBS.
  • The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals of Bacchus based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia (Wikipedia).
  • “Lo, the children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward (Psalm 127:3-5:3).”
  • Ben Franklin never actually proposed the turkey be the national bird over the bald eagle. Maybe he should have.

About the Author

Virginia Laurie is a student at Washington and Lee University whose work has been published in LandLocked, Panoply, Phantom Kangaroo, Short Vine, Tiny Seed and The Merrimack Review.