I tumbled back into the past, into those moments I’ve relived so many times. Knee-deep in icy water, my numb hands submerged. Reaching, grabbing, pulling. Screams echoing around me, mingling with the cries of seagulls.… Continue Reading
Last week of summer. A hurricane was supposed to be there that weekend. You didn’t need to watch the news, it was in the air. The impending violence of it, almost sweet smelling, like a burgeoning romance. Korey and his family would stay.… Continue Reading
My ex, Ray, claimed he could see inside me. Your bones, he’d said on our first date. I’d assumed he was referring to my skeletal structure, perhaps complimenting me on high cheekbones or a soft jawline. But then one day he asked why I didn’t have the cavity in my left molar fixed. … Continue Reading
“’Come on, man,’ Giuseppe said. ‘You’re starting to bum me out.’ ‘Yeah,’ Leo said. ‘What is this?’ Sammy shook his head. ‘Share,” Giuseppe said. ‘If not with us then with who?’ ‘You mean whom?’ Leo said. And Giuseppe said, ‘I mean suck my dick, okay?'”… Continue Reading
Chinni chuckles softly, then begs, then resorts to Reiki for transmuting her unspent libido, while you bury all your helplessness in newspapers, reading from first to last page, then at the clinic, filling the plastic cup and praying for at least one or two to get up, do the work.… Continue Reading
On his walk to work he sees ink insulation like guts hanging from the cavernous chest cavity of the black dumpster. Dozens of flies crowding on a flattened squirrel who has something green leaking from one intact eye. The flies scatter at his approach, the buzzing a soft warning.… Continue Reading
The fact he wants to tell these stories tells me he wants to keep on breathing. He hasn’t given up yet. And when he sits outside on the bench and smokes, I see him staring off at the sky, his right arm gripping the wheel, turning down a back road, big wheels kicking up a hurricane of mud.
… Continue Reading
On his way out Dad bent down and told me that I was man of the house now and I would be taking care of Mom. None of the other twelve-year-olds on my block had a job to do like this. Maybe, I thought, this would prepare me for sixth grade. … Continue Reading
I figured I’d wasted enough time and money and went back to look for funny bangs girl and that’s how I ended up watching slip-and-slide bikini lady hit the bump and take a dive through the crocodile mile of drunken former frat boys’ cheers.… Continue Reading
If marriage taught him anything, it was that he knew when his wife was upset. His problem, however, was that he never knew what she was upset about.… Continue Reading