My Pothos Plant Finally Convinced Me to Write in My Office
Not so long ago, I was a writer who wrote anywhere but at her desk.


One day, while thrift shopping, I noticed a comfortable-looking office chair, and I remembered the somewhat stiff dining room chair I’d dragged into the office a few weeks before. This one was leather and reclining, with arms and a backrest. I rolled it to the register and never looked back. “Scoot over. I live here now too,” I joked late one night while moving the plant to a small table to make more room for me at my desk.
Damn, I need more space

Destiny O. Birdsong is a Louisiana-born poet, fiction writer, and essayist whose work has either appeared or is forthcoming in Poets & Writers, The Paris Review Daily, Boston Review, African American Review, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published by Tin House Books in October 2020, and was longlisted for the 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection. Her debut novel, Nobody's Magic, is forthcoming from Grand Central in February 2022. She earned both her MFA and PhD from Vanderbilt University.
Enter your email address to receive notifications for author Destiny Birdsong
Success!
Confirmation link sent to your email to add you to notification list for author Destiny Birdsong
More by this author
Queerness Gave Me a New Way of Seeing Myself
That afternoon, I learned again something I had known before: that I wasn’t completely straight.
When a Friendship Ends But the Love Survives
With the help of all of my friends—my best one included—I’ve gotten better at being my whole self.
Surviving Karen Medicine
How do you navigate a healthcare system that wasn’t designed for you?