All of Us Animals
Boys everywhere—actors, singers, models—bodies hairless and hips slim, leaned against palm trees. A thousand gazes follow us always.
Adverse
Even in the dim yellow light I could see the hives spreading across my neck where your stubble had burned me.
Flying Dolls
It must have taken him weeks to build them, to glue the mixture of rice and crushed glass to the string.
Gulf
"Skate babies," he said cryptically. "Protects them from all the dangers." He flapped a leathery arm towards the snack bar and drawled something about signs.
The Future Carries Us Forward to Winter
You stand in the hall poking at the window blinds. They’re old vinyl, faded yellow and nearly melted with years of endless sun. Your fingers walk to eye-level, push a slat up so you can see out, and then climb higher. Above your head you reach to press your finger, through the hole of a bent, half-broken slat, all the way to the fogged glass.
Remembrance
The photo album is dry like carefully stored tinder, the dried rose petals haphazardly stuck on the front look yellowed and frail.
Desk Lunch
She skitters away on her keyboard: Tic tac tac tac tic. Then pauses to scratch her head; the noise a cacophony, forming a symphony of disturbance that rattles my loaded head. Every day she rattles me.
How to Make a Dogpatch Cake or, Baking Something Out of Nothing
She always has at least 1 can of cherry pie filling socked away somewhere—God knows why—the woman don’t even bake.
In My Sleep I am Wounded a Thousand Times
The itching begins at night. Fire on my scalp, ears aflame. I was dreaming about butterflies and barbed…
The Pilgrims
I HEARD THE FLIES BUZZ TWICE IN MY LIFE, ONCE OVER THE DEAD BODY ON THE RIVERSIDE, AND ONCE…
If the World Ends
What if it came crashing down, I thought. What if it fell like a blanket and smothered us all.
Hineni
The night of my parents’ funeral, she told me that the most important thing you can tell people, dead or alive, is that you are here. On this earth.