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Attempts on a Life

Attempts on a Life

He hears us all.

My mother addresses Him by name, weeping into her pillow at night when she thinks I am asleep and will not hear her.

Alice calls Him Jehovah…

Mom’s Suspension

Mom’s Suspension

Mom’s wearing her favorite blouse, the one she cut and hemmed into a toga that shows the scarred patch where her left breast was, when she steps beneath the…

The Suspenders

The Suspenders

I walked in my house and thought, what the fuck?

“What the fuck?” I was calm, careful not to yell.

“What?” Ben said. Ben was my roommate, a friend of a…

Rituals

Rituals

Oscar is digging again. Tearing up the northeast corner of his weedy, bumpy lawn. I count silently as he hits ground. 22 … 24 … I skip odd numbers.…

Goddess

Goddess

“So, do you still think I’m hot? I mean, do you think men still find me attractive?” Jenny asks.

This is never a good question to answer, much less entertain.…

This Morning Will Be Different

This Morning Will Be Different

I already have long black skirts in natural fibers, and faux leather chokers with precious stone pendants. I have already grown my hair only so that I can tie…

Goodbye Ruby

Goodbye Ruby

For Lauren Becker

Ruby had a crush on Tom Selleck’s mustache. Her locker was wallpapered with magazine pictures of him and it just about killed her when he shaved it…

All of it, Gone

All of it, Gone

The boy sleeps in a waterbed that belongs to his friend, a girl named Christie. One night in a burst of anger he takes a pencil and he punctures…

Bonds That Break

Bonds That Break

Sirens. I pull over on the shoulder of the interstate and retrieve my registration from the glove box. I watch in my rear view mirror as the officer writes…

The Dictator is Drinking Alone

The Dictator is Drinking Alone

The dictator is drinking alone, watching Shane and weeping into a glass of whiskey.

Well, not entirely alone. His Special Guard is there, of course, dressed in grey and scarlet uniforms with…