He lights and drags. He passes it to you. You take it and inhale. You will do anything, you realize, and this thrills you more than it scares you.… Continue Reading
Back at the graveside, Larry was still dead. Incense burned and was wafted around, dirt got tossed in the grave.… Continue Reading
You asked me three times to clean the smudge off the ceiling. I said I would but I kept forgetting. I think this is one reason. … Continue Reading
One of my earliest memories is of my mother turning a baseball game on the radio while waiting for me to fall asleep for an afternoon nap.… Continue Reading
I knew then what it meant, to bleed slowly from the heart.… Continue Reading
I glance at my mom, who is squinting and fanning herself with a MAGA pamphlet, and I’m not sure how much she’s understanding. There are thousands of unmasked white people around us and I’m so paranoid my chest is throbbing, but this is precisely the point.… Continue Reading
I spilled milk where one was not supposed to spill milk, soiled myself at the most inopportune times, incessantly chewed a green rubber ring into a slobbery mess, and cried in the middle of church services, head after angry head turning to see my parents whisking me away down the center aisle. “Shhhh,” my parents whispered, but I knew they really wished to say, “Get yourself together, dude. You should see yourself right now!”… Continue Reading
34 is the slowest in the pool, which shouldn’t surprise anybody, because he’s new. He started swimming a month ago, probably because his mom told him to lose weight. He has these chubby cheeks, and his swimsuit is a size thirty-four, hence the name. All of us wear thirty-two or smaller, and 34’s suit hardly even fits as it is.… Continue Reading
A year ago he had no clue what it was like being a single parent or what it meant to run a small business. Then his wife decided their marriage wasn’t fulfilling. He didn’t blame her for wanting more. In order to live close to his children, he’d rented a studio apartment in the neighborhood near their school. The day he signed his lease the city reduced the library’s hours. He became even less. … Continue Reading
He saw her see him. Her face said: I know this person. Then he knew he was positively identified, though her expression didn’t change. Baffling she should still be here, still on campus, all these years later. In this gaudy, sun-drenched glass box. Except not really: that was obviously a student sitting beside her, working… Continue Reading