It’s Valentine’s Day. My desk holds various gifts waiting to be given, a bouquet with a peacock feather wrapped in a plastic package and heart-shaped box of ch...
Southern pride, pride in southern toughness or roughness, is not something I know, not really, though I grew up here and I ran away from here when I was a teen...
I’d seen her for months in my Oakland hills neighborhood. In her ill-fitting reflective safety vest near Safeway where I bought the Lunchables my two children ...
tonight, they are silhouetted against disco lights. silences of cosmic proportions lay between them. up above, stars: white flames enclosed in a fantasy glassh...
Of course there is a right way to grieve. That is to carry your solemn soul tucked deep inside, to smile when smiling is called for, to keep the tears unspille...
Alice’s feet were the first part of her to disappear. It happened gradually; not toe by toe by toe but a slow fadeout that no one else seemed to notice. An inn...
On Wednesday morning, I woke up next to a stranger. He had an autumn-colored beard and ruby lips that whistled as he breathed.
“Hey,” I said. “Wake up.”
...
I know you’re watching me watching them. Perhaps you’re wondering why I’m not standing amidst them, voice loud, free arm addling the air, blending East and Wes...
On Monday my mother took her drugs to navigate the maze. To light the way she lit up one filtered cigarette—slims, 100s, menthols, whatever was on sale—and the...
I'm ravenous. It’s like this every year; I’m always so hungry toward the dark end of the season. The flaps of the tent flutter open to admit us, and I lift my ...
