Floral straight jackets hiding women It’s too pretty to get dirty High high heels knees tremble at the long way down It’s like watching ceramic doe on ice Grandmothers protested their actual sturdiness Rejecting the nonsense neatly paved imperatives of…
Outside my window there is steam and there are lights in a skyscraper where people sit at their desks and the lights let them work. I bought two hot tamales from the Mexican food cart hoping it would warm me….
I’m hunting for ghosts, In alleys lit by memories, Phantoms of yesterday, Carved out of my mind. What I once held, You me and our dreams, Scraped knees and screeching swings, Pokémon cards and shiny things. Caught between childhood and…
Knows the heart ache of canaries. Hummimg bird to spilt milk No friends same dress Pearls that rarely dance Five dollar rose bouquets Without a stanza even Hefty husband beer kisses On the cheek Crazy kids wandering these streets Parental…
Today I am thinking of you and Michigan. Remember how back in the day I didn’t drink coffee? Well, I still don’t care for it much, but I find myself, like today, drinking it from time to time. Helene asks…
You tell her you love her the day she graduates. It’s a carefree spring morning, the perfect kind for the endurance training you sometimes did— to build up stamina, because stage work was tougher than it looked. The past week…
It never occurred to me how messy I can look. It’s almost finals week. I’ve been wearing my friend’s navy hoodie with noticeable white writing reading, “Aeropostale” on the front for the past three days. I have on rainbow colored…
She cornered herself against the shoulders of two meeting walls and wrote her screams into the plaster. The sun was a blade against her skin as the image the image the image swung through her mind like a pendulum …
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Focus on this moment. How do I feel? What am I seeing? What am I hearing? Him. Breathing in. Breathing out. Breathing in. Breathing out. Synchronicity. One. The clarity in his eyes…
Back home, my sister’s bedroom overlooked our back deck. She could climb out her windowsill and drop down a few feet onto the wooden planks below, landing on the balls of her feet so as not to give herself away….
‘‘It’s okay to change your mind.’’ About feeling, a person, a promise of love. I can’t just stay to avoid contradicting myself. I don’t have to watch him cry. (142, Lena Dunham, Not That Kind of Girl) While the terraces…
[Ring, Ring, Ring] The telephone rings but I don’t want to answer On the other side is someone who I’m running away from [Ring, Ring, Ring] I pick up and hang up They call again Utter silence throughout my end…
Coincidence did not cause the young man’s cheek to share the curve of mine in his gray, buttered face. His finger-combed hair wet with grease, his white, Sunday shirt folded one flip from his wrists as he squints, grins, leans…
I dreamed of the day, In the dead of winter, A dreary day, When I’d step off the train And see you there- The day of our meeting- Yet like two old friends Reuniting After years apart, The warm embrace…
Meet me in the mountains Of Oregon (Washington’s been having too many fires). It won’t be hard to find me- Just look for the earthship, There aren’t too many. And the big plot of land All set up for you…
Tomorrow is that glint in your best friends’ eye, When he proposes a daring plan. Tomorrow is that rainbow glinting in the sky, Reminding you that you’re not alone. Tomorrow is a fanciful dream taking flight, All sunshine and sparkles…
I can feel the evening sun, warm on my face, but the chill of the wind coaxes me to pull my coat tighter around me. I’m thankful for the forethought to wear a scarf. 7 years spent in this state…
Bloated clouds float above the prison, obscuring the sun. I linger outside the narrow cell window, which is no more than a barred gap in the wall, waiting for the time when I must enter the execution room. I always…
It’s been 6 months, 13 days and 4 hours since I last weighed myself. I hid the scales in a plastic bag under some books beneath my bed, kidding myself that I’d forget they were there. I didn’t. Every time…
“I’m afraid your head will fall off,” Esme said. “What silly nonsense,” her friend replied. “No, this is serious,” Esme pushed. “I remember it happened when I was little.” “Bull. To who?” “In this book I got from the library….