Reasons followed her pretty-girl looks like the bows on a kite tail. Her dad taught her to shoot, showed her pictures of those who failed to shoot: a body abandoned in pine [...]
I was trying to listen to the facilitator but the girl in the row in front of me turned and stared at me until I made eye contact with her. “Jesus,” she said. “Listen [...]
I declined a knighthood honoring my heroic efforts at keeping heroism effortless, something I perfected while lateral-to-prone-ish, modeling a languid nobility which defined [...]
I’m first in line for Remembrance Day. I’ve been here since midnight. The announcement never said what time the gates would open—just that it would be early. Although [...]
What was your early life like? Where did you grow up? During the week, when not at dance or school, I was out playing in the swamp behind my house. On weekends we drove to my [...]
Even though she is a biological woman who wants to be a drag queen. Even though I read her diary and she confessed …………..Sometimes all you can do is [...]
Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow Peonies stagger paths worn in spots they were picked long ago to heal – Aged men squat [...]
Sleep is a type of dying we enter each night. If lucky, we rise from our rest in peace, our pillowed tombs, to see another day, there are miracles all around me, thought [...]
snake watches spider watches fly another hour like this Linda Blair, Superhero For Carla Toptsidis Enchanted is not the word most would use for a first encounter covered in [...]
There is, here in my hand, a small blue rectangle of grocery list like the looping invitation to a banquet that awaits and my finger pads press it rumpled and wet. You step, [...]
Orange peels on the plate, broken curls Of skin, scent of trees from Morocco, Spain, or somewhere else, somewhere other Than here on this smoke-gray morning in Maine. The [...]
What do you do if you’re that close to the edge, And you don’t know how you got there? How do you feel when, Just by chance, You’ve inched away from the never-ending [...]
Crowd pours onto the pavement like a viscous liquid. Swallows yesterday’s residue – traces of discarded food, pocket garbage, piss stains – with no hesitation. [...]
They know I am not fluent in English, but still approach me. “Why are your eyes so black? Why do you look like you’ve been in the sun all your life?” My mother told me [...]
Your passing wind captures me Gently mistakes me for another cold heart Like the ones you find in the frozen foods section Sorting through processed fish Comparing prices Or [...]
Acknowledge the wrecking ball in your chest, the slow heaving back and forth as it crashes against your heart. Brush your teeth but avoid the mirror. Drape it with black [...]
I see pieces of you everywhere I go, smell hints of your perfume in drafts of wind as I walk down this old block trying to assemble the remnants of my past. It feels like you [...]
Sparrows flying close to the ground means that it will rain. Sparrows bathing in sand means that it will rain. Is that how it goes? The meteorologist on TV says that there is [...]