It was a screaming household. I had been warned, but it was still an adventure being there. First, a steak was slapped down to sizzle. A pot of greasy water lingered on another burner. Cooked, the steak was slid onto a plate set before the son. He cut it to share with...

The night is sharp and every evening bee releases its sting and its buzz. In the kitchen, my sister with her silicone curls cups the oven smoke in her hands, blows it into my mouth. Asks me, Why are you so haunted by the dead but never by me? From the living room, my...

You don’t need me in your life I fall in love in my dreams desert lovers by dawn   elusive and rare as the blue moon I sink low in the sky disappear for decades return only to mock your longing draw your desire to my breast swallow your pleasure until your blind...

fuzzy memories & kitchen table tattoos black wind cracks lips whispers out her susurrus song erosion carrying grains off hissing slips in a whirling hour glass twin sets of raven’s wings flapping bookend worlds crushed & remade lazarus in the details lott’s...

  In the dream willed to her By Stephen King, the master, and By Kafka and his paradox A car, smallest of tiny A black Honda del Sol  — it was   Accident? The car now pancaked Into an accordion Morphs into white Morphs into rainbow Pride   Arrested? Her...

I stood next to the gas pumps and waved at my brother Pumpkin sitting in the front seat of my Tacoma. He wanted to go in with me and buy a grape popsicle, but I told him to wait in the truck, and that I’d get him one. His grin revealed the missing tooth I’d helped him...

Save the Last Dress from Me I knew what dress I’d have picked if Celia had asked me to choose. But she didn’t. She asked Mother instead. Mother nodded in her usual competent way, then walked to the oak armoire with her usual confident stride. She paused then, as she...

My neighbor Lydia and I have discovered a shared shy kink for slippery words. It’s a curious, consuming entanglement. She keeps her curtains drawn, the lights off when I visit — her entire world a veiled secret save a sulfur-hint of snuffed autumn candles. In that...

Ride, the Long Way ‘Round                FINAL                                  (BG)  9.4.2023   Walk away. Take the night off. Troubles wait around the corner out of respect. They no longer languor in the dark and isolate alone. They hang about everywhere, yet...