Adam Something was missing from his anatomy. He searched his body without knowing what he was looking for, what it would feel like, how large it was. His hands always landed on his smooth stretch of belly. That had to have been significant. How lonely, to bear no mark of being tethered to anything. How […]

Each day is a rewrite of the rest so far. Today, I write myself patient. I give myself breaths that fill my lungs like two plump balloons. I float rather than walk. When I open my mouth, the sound of light rain on leaves comes out. If it hurts where the skin is stitching back […]

Ten Things I’ve Been 1. The hunter. 2. The man on the screen. 3. The fire of a hungry torch. 4. The stone of the walls. 5. The sea cradling relics in its arms. 6. The deer. 7. The man on the screen. 8. The smoke in her lungs. 9. The sound trapped inside. 10. […]

1. Before something is born, there is discomfort. There is nausea, vomiting, the body cleansing itself of toxins. There is the swelling of feet and joints, the stretching and growing of protective tissues. There is pressure on the organs and diaphragm, pain in the breasts and back. There is the widening of blood vessels, the […]

I was wearing my brother’s pants when I got in the accident. The denim was broken in to where it felt like my own skin. In the right hand pocket was a mala, prayer beads made of aquamarine, made by one of my best friends. In little black shelf above the gearshift was a ring […]

Stuffed Cat It wasn’t what it would have expected to become, but it had no memory of ever having expected anything. It just was. A strange assortment of grey, fuzzy cloth, thread, stuffing, and plastic. The junction of the head and body pieces was feeble, the head flopping weakly to one side. The little girl […]

Octomom I wonder how Octomom feels when she looks at each of her wriggling octochildren their young faces deepening in character, their movements turning into the patterns that define their personalities. Their instinctive reactions. Their wants. Their fears. Their hiding places. Their strategic means to their desires; their desires. I wonder what it is like […]

Advice from America’s Psychiatrist Consider the source of the pathology. Consider the first “real Americans.” The people with beliefs so radical, they chose, or were forced to, leave their countries and start over completely. Consider their desire to remain superior to the point where all they built was on the backs of other races. How […]

Morning Prayer The sun begins its path across the window. I lie heavy and full after sleep, a sack of flour, thanking the lingering cobwebs of dreams for their mysterious metaphor. There was a sadness falling asleep that I cannot remember now; my mind, a machine defaulting to useless, repetitive motion, wakes as a soft, […]

Gardener’s Instruction Manual for Self-Change It will not happen all at once. That is simply not the way of things. There are millions of tiny choices collapsed into your new self, seeds scattered by the winds’ hands. First, choose your location. Find places of beauty, the homes to generously growing beings and gentle weather. Start […]