Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Tag: short story

  • prompt 89

    What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

    When I feel like having a perfect leisure time, wallowing in the luxury of permitted laziness from duties at work and home, I am a willing couch potato with my cats on each side of me, perching luxuriously just like ancient Roman patricians, watching movies I like.

    My choice of movies is preferential to supernatural scares. I will not use the term “Horror Movies” because most are not supernatural but gory and macabre with too much blood. When stressed or annoyed, I watch supernatural movies, preferably based on actual events – or so they say – and willingly lose myself in them. Maybe it’s this temporary forgetfulness of the present worries that act like analgesics to numb my tired nerves. Or perhaps I am just drawn to the netherworld. Who knows, I am a closet sybyil or oracle yet to be awakened? But, no psychic or panaronamal investigator, please.

    My cats seem to have no problems with my predilection for the supernatural because they are not afraid of ghosts, as cats are supernatural by themselves. They protect me from nightmares, goblins, vampires, and all the scary regulars from the dungeons and dunes.

    we ain’t afraid of ghosts.

  • prompt 88

    Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

    It takes about an hour and 30 minutes from Los Angeles to San Diego by drive, so it’s not precisely near one another. Still, I love to visit the San Diego Zoo and Sea World on vacation.

    Disneyland and Universal Studios are the closest attractions, but I want to meet the animals, including Red Pandas, Tigers, Cheetahs, and Orcas, in person! I contemplated bringing my cats to introduce them to one another, but the Zoo and Sea World policies don’t allow it, so that they will stay home. But I turn on the Wildlife videos on YouTube before going to work, so I hope it will be a vicarious encounter. Of all the animal residents at the zoo, my special interests are Cheetahs and Orcas because they are exquisitely beautiful. I heard there is a unique safari program about Cheetahs, so I look forward to it.

    Wild at home: Toro and Camille from L to R

    Since my life with Toro and Camille, animals – Wild or Domestic – have become friends to me, or so I feel. I think animals know and like me better.

  • prompt 84

    Bloganuary writing prompt
    What’s your dream job?
    View all responses

    The word “Job” always triggers the image of Job, whose piety to God was tested by Satan, who made him go through the trials of life so that he could curse God for the suffering. The etymology of Job is from Greek Iōb, from Hebrew Iyyōbh, meaning ‘occurrence.’ Or ‘Joining Others’ Business,’ which is hardly anything dreamy.

    My ideal Job is one where I can perform my abilities to the greatest extent possible with good pay and benefits packages to secure my livelihood. After a series of misses on the Wheel of Fortune, I finally landed my current Job as a case manager assistant in a law firm, which I am grateful for (although some of the co-workers behave foolishly and immaturely as if they were teenagers.) It’s not a dream job, and I wouldn’t have to sustain a job if I won a lottery or possessed bequeathed estates from the family trust account. Still, it helps me pay the rents, dues, provide the food and medical to my cats and Mom, and keep my appearance.

    No jobs are dreams; if you insist, they will not last like a midsummer night’s dream because feelings are fleeting and precarious. Earl of Kent wouldn’t have had to get a job if King Lear had not let him go of employment as his trusty servant. And when he got it, it wasn’t his dream job, either.

  • Prompt 81

    Can you share a positive example of where you’ve felt loved?

    I love you Toro ❤️🥰

    I feel love with Toro, the Tabby General, the only one I can say, ‘ I love you.’ It’s emotionally taxing to work human’s love to be loved as if it were a quid pro quo deal or a meritocratic reward. But with Toro, it is anything but.

    Of course, I also love Camille, the Puss in Black Socks, but Toro is the center of my existence. He is all love and life. Toro is the only one who sees me gladly and greets me with his little head, bunting my leg and hand forcibly, even when I am sulky and miserable. He also sleeps at my feet or sometimes next to me when I sleep as though to dispel nightmares. He knows what I am feeling inside and who I am. Looking at his eyes is seeing my soul reflected in the emerald sea sparkling with curiosity and soothing with lullaby.

    I confide in Toro the maladies of my heart and secrets. Shakespeare said, “Love All, Do Wrong to None, and Trust a Few.” Toro is one of those a few I trust. I read a letter written by Elizabeth Taylor to her beloved cat who went missing after they moved to a house in California from England. I could feel her love toward her missing cat so much that it almost felt physically hurtful for the sorrow she expressed.

    Toro will turn four years old this August and is in good health now, but I am also worried that he will leave me someday. I can’t imagine a world without him and life without his love. So I always ask him to live with me as long as possible and to leave this world together when our times on earth are due. There’s no one like Toro who is as kind and affectionate as he is. He is my friend and my brother. I love him so much in every universe.

  • prompt 80

    Bloganuary writing prompt
    Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
    View all responses

    I am a person of paradox. I like decorating my tiny room, but I also like it minimal to make it spacious. And there are piles of books to read that I haven’t read yet. I am a vain reader who wants to read a lot but also wants to read only the ones I feel strongly about. Like the faces of Janus, Frivolity and Austerity, Comedy and Tragedy. Very human.


    I rearrange things and organize the room when I am either under dark clouds of mood or the weight of the narrowness of the space. I do not hesitate to throw things that I no longer need because those things are like trendy guests hurriedly leaving the host’s house when feeling no need to stay long. Since my cats’ tower and hammock are the mainstays of our room, creating maximum effect for the minimum capacity is my responsibility and mission to keep our den as enjoyable and livable as possible.


    I wish I could reduce the clutter in my mind’s space that Lord Byron called “the palace of the soul, the dome of thought.” There are so many things occupying it; honestly, I don’t think I will miss them if wiped out. That will be my cleaning Aegean stable. Hercules cleaned it with streams of the river. Of course, he got help from his godly side, but that’s cheating, not by himself alone. Hence I am doing it myway with the habit of writing be the fresh streams of the river to clean my Aegean stable.

  • prompt 79

    What is your favorite animal?

    Toro and Camille from L to R

    I am of Cat People by birth. It is said that the ones born in the year of the tiger are independent, resilient, headstrong, and adventurous, all of which are the characteristics of Cats. Rudyard Kipling called a cat a creature that walked alone, and there is no better epithet than this. All three of us, Me, the Tiger, Toro the Tabby General, and Camille, the Puss in Black Socks, love to be alone but also hate to be alone when together.

    We can be merry and demanding, charming and aloof, affectionate and timid. We are also picky eaters, not in favor of trying new things but adhering to each of our favorite food articles. As Lucy Maud Montgomery, who loved cats very much, said, cats are so lovely, so friendly, and so selfish, which makes them all the more humanlike. When I see my Toro and Camile, I sometimes wonder if they think they are humans, especially Toro, who is not an iota interested in other cats but humans.

    Cats are also for the poor. In ancient Egypt, cats were considered poor men’s lions at home and kept as chief snake catchers. In Europe, cats were chief mousers on the farms. I am grateful for my cats to live in such a tiny apartment with me and my mom.

    My Sweeties 💕❤️🥰🧚‍♀️⭐️

    Many people take pride in publicly announcing their dislike of cats as if there were some virtue in doing it. They compare them with dogs and are peevish about cats’ independence and capriciousness. But that feline tendency suits me, and that’s why I like cats. And my cats are also bilingual, understanding Korean and English when I tell them, “I love you so much in every universe.” Precious. ⭐️✨🌟🧚‍♀️