“You know how things happen and your brain just can’t quite compute, it all seems like some hilarious joke. I can handle everything else, but the idea of lying awake another night wanting to strangle an innocent woman snoring on the cot next to me—”
… Continue Reading
You went to school, went to Mass every Sunday, whether you liked it or not, made the sacraments, blew out birthday candles each year on your day, finished high school and went to college, and that was that—there was no arguing other options.… Continue Reading
I am no longer a child and know these efforts won’t atone for the sins of a father, transform a stranger into a mother, yet I keep going as if at some point I will be rewarded, handed whatever it is I seem to want from one of my almost-mothers.… Continue Reading
A television mounted high on the opposite wall showed white women with facelifts and fake tits screeching at one another while drinking wine. He checked the time on his phone. Leaving the house for even an hour was taking a chance.… Continue Reading
Females. Also known, culturally, as women. Appropriate undergarments are required to be worn with all uniform combinations. How do we define appropriate? You show us yours and we’ll know it when we see it. But, seriously, don’t show us yours.… Continue Reading
On about the fortieth time I wrenched the steering wheel all the way to the left he said, “Just pull out. You did good enough.” I thought about this guy a lot in college, when I was with my girlfriend.… Continue Reading
Tomorrow I’ll be legal, but I was thirteen when I discovered, sitting before a mirror with my legs butterflied, that I had an ugly vagina.… Continue Reading
Chinooks blow misgivings for days. But with each warm lungful the possibility of re-greening is inhaled and felt. Change may not be in the cards for me, but for a few more hours, maybe a day or two, it will feel like a possibility, remote and slight, but nonetheless, a possibility.… Continue Reading
It’s not always clear what a hole is for.… Continue Reading
Poetry gets rid of the chaff. We’re taught to not linger on the unnecessary. To hone something until it is bone on bone. And that absolutely helps in fiction. Writing is about making choices—what to leave in, what to include that may not seem obvious, and what to take out (lots).… Continue Reading