Looking back at 21

Thrashing against the repetition: rocks against waves against rocks I was thrown out of this wet possibility, hurled onto a solid surface eating sand over and over

In Meeting Myself

I discover raspberries blooming under my fingernails and my hair turns to drops of honey when it falls onto my pillow my skin sings sweetly when strummed, my teeth pull on pink I love looking in the mirror with mascara and the fourth outfit I tried I love seeing myself as a beautiful woman By

The first apology of the day

Like a snake, I am shedding the flaky layer of my estranged past.   It has hard to keep things straight- when people press into my pain, and say they relate to my work.   I forget what grievances I am still paying off   and I crawl on my belly as penance to the

Crumbs

Must I spend my whole life begging for the crumbs of your affection?   I follow you trying to remain quiet and unnoticed,   a person who has become nothing is difficult to grab with the snares of hatred.   My plate is never full, even when I pile the scraps in the center-  

A Trip Like No Other

The year is sometime in the distant past and our setting is a quiet suburban town. The crime rates are low and the resident satisfaction is high. All the children know each other and families sleep with their doors unlocked. If you come at just the right time, you will likely see a few pies

The Space Between

your lips on the soles on of my feet the dissolving of a border a boundary a degree of separation removed   we danced until sunrise the soft carpet unfurling to catch our toes velvet dresses licked knees your pants hugged your thighs   you scrambled eggs the smell made me throw up i have

A widening gap

Bandaids and stitches and chewed wads of bubble gum but nothing was enough to pull together the gap that stretched between us.   I remember the first time I knew it wouldn’t last, and my aggressive optimism immediately following.   I believed that if I loved you enough, hung onto every word as if it

The highest price

people brush past me and bump into me everyone in a rush everyone in a hurry   all these people with their own stories even if i spent my entire lifetime, it’s not possible to know them all   so we capture the ones we can we hold them in our soft palms we promise

The Heaviest Gallon

As I sit in my half-packed bedroom smoke leaks out my mouth as the warm liquid pushes its way inside. My first drink in four years and my first smoke in double that.   “Doris, what’s the big deal? I want to get fat free milk.” This was the moment where everything collided and for

Something Off

Clammy hands claw at the hooded figure that drags the night-gowned woman across the damp grass. Muffled screams for help are quickly silenced by the hooded man’s sudden pressing of a small blade against the woman’s cheek. “You’re going to want to keep that pretty mouth shut, sweetheart. I don’t think Steven would appreciate getting