from Ornithoncology I ain’t no holla back girl, but girl, I love the hollow of your back, a birthmark continent and placid sea. I mean, this shit is bananas. I mean, I once won a spelling bee. But I like best when you sting my mouth with kisses, and I want to holla...
Issue Twelve
Overlooking Everything
What do you want to be when you grow up? I ask my son Leroy. An architect! The 6-year-old proclaims. Well, why wait. We start building the world’s tallest rollercoaster right here in our suburban backyard. We lay a concrete slab and bolt down some 6 x 6s. Seeing a...
Space Invaders
Space Invaders
Specialist
Car One evening my car burps and dies. I point to the place where the car has always felt sick. Dog "Most of our things are already ruined," my man says, pointing to the chewed chair legs, scratched hardwood floors. Lately his voice sounds like a permanent sticker. No...
A Belief in Your Current Location; Rushes of Blood
A BELIEF IN YOUR CURRENT LOCATION You were ass-deep in parents. And there was no place else but where you lived. And no other time. It’s where you got that foot-long scar. But the chickens and fish had it worse. Sometimes, you start believing you’re still back there...
Dim Songs for the Sightless
I set a pot of mac and cheese on the hotplate to simmer before grabbing my line and hook. It’s that time of year again and you never reject a source of free food. I push down to the basement, over to the back corner near the water heater, and probe around. I need to...
Last Time
Yesterday, before the cocktail hour, I went shopping for loopholes. Bridget said it’s been her life-long dream to own one. Downtown, I felt like an animal lost in an animal city. So many attorneys. Fortunately, I was my other self, so I was able to take full advantage...
Round and Round We Go
Round One In the beginning, I knew my mom wouldn’t last forever because she longed to be reunited with her mother. If there were a fair equilibrium, a true exchange, her mother would have wanted her to stay with me, not her. She was dead. I was...
Punch Line
Joke Me thinks it’s funny. Says the famous writer isn’t being literal. Serious Me knows better. We’ve been standing in line for two hours. The famous writer will sign our books and punch us squarely in the jaw. Then we can take our famous wounds to the ER. The nurses...
Good & Plenty
Dear Ms. Bettina Smit: Your phone doesn’t seem to be working, so that’s why I’m emailing. I’d like you to know that Makoto Kita is quite the gentleman, and I enjoy having him in my home while he attends his program. He sure has quite the appetite for American food!...