there is no one way to woman, but my way wasn’t one of them.… more
there is no one way to woman, but my way wasn’t one of them.… more
Their Boy Scout manual didn’t cover what to do when you found a fetus along the Kishwaukee River bank.… more
I did a lot of things. I was a drunk and a meth head, she said. I’m better now. Not perfect but better. You know what it’s like. I do, I said, but I never wanted to touch a child.… more
TRY NOT TO SHAKE OR JUST LEAVE HIM SOMEWHERE was something she texted one of those last times. I wasn’t a Papa long enough to be asked something like that, but I tried to do it anyway. … more
I see myself through his eyes. A woman fleeing. Away from him. This is not who I want to be. This is who I’ll always be. I’ve read enough stories, heard enough stories. … more
Does the reader really need to know the story unfolds on a Monday? He imagined himself choking down cigarettes with Jason Robards, legs resting on a cluttered desk, flipping and conferring over a wrinkled printout. If he were a better writer, the story would already have that “Monday” feel to it.… more
There was all the research he had the patience to do on which refrigerator model, brand of woolen socks that would actually keep my feet warm, rechargeable battery for the edger, pest control service, VPN, mechanic, or coffee bean roaster to buy. Every goddamn thing but what that shortness of breath could mean and which cardiologist was the best to see about it.… more
They get ICE CREAM, more sugar-shit. He says SHIT, he says DAMN IT (slurred m-sound) and OH MAN, but I don’t call him little man, just baby, just boy, just champ sometimes.… more
The news said the temperature would be zero or below. I said how can it be zero, how can a temperature be nothing? But it isn’t nothing, it’s zero, it’s a value, my brother told me. He was also living with my mom at the time.… more
By this point in time his tennis game had degenerated into little more than an ill-conceived, albeit skillful, vendetta, the intent of which was to extinguish as many members of the human race as possible.… more