Nonfiction

Irises

I bought flowers at the grocery store even though I didn’t mean to buy flowers at the grocery store. Fresh flowers are for afternoons when you feel shiny and...

This Washcloth

There is this washcloth, white and with a textured wave pattern, that we accidentally stole from the La Quinta in Portland one spring. Z was teething and had ti...

The Moments Before We Woke

This morning I woke to a bedspread sun-stripped though the bars of your finch's cage. He jumped from perch to perch, seed poised between two sharp halves of bea...

Imagine Texas

for the embattled there is no place that cannot be home nor is —Audre Lorde   A glass globe, a myriad of Buddhas, chopsticks, a ceramic mug painte...

Exam: Essays 101

There is no wrong way to read this. There is no wrong way to engage this. If you X-out the Word-Doc or PDF, if you turn the page over, or close the book (wouldn...

Balk

I’d like to think it was out of genuine concern that my father pulled me away from playing with my sister’s dolls to stand out with him in the autumn air. We fa...

I’m Black, You’re Black

Hey, black male student who boldly asked me where I’m from and when I told you Wisconsin and you asked, “No, where are you really from,” as if “really” is a mag...

When Bones Grow

The jawbone is the only bone in your head that moves; it opens and closes and lets you talk and chew food. When people say something is jaw-dropping, it usually...