in the hospital with me there was a tall blonde boy with angry scrapes on the back of his neck, sockless in his institutional orange sandals. he walked laps around the halls, the skin of his feet opening to the unforgiving plastic. when i suggested socks, another patient suggested that i was witnessing organic harm reduction. there was wisdom in that blistering walk & it was not cure.
Read MoreI’m a bony brown girl, tipping absolutely NO scales with my forty-four pound body at ten years old. Fifth grade is when my hips spurted out a teense and I grew a whisper-and-a-half taller. Ah, but that height promotion graduated me from a kiddie banana seat bike to a woman’s adult bike. I wobble and tippie toe to balance the bigger wheels and frame. The most important thing? I now pedal alongside my Ateh Elise’s (elder sister) biker ‘gang’ of other 7th grade Filipino teens. I am not-at-all ready for womanhood in my mom-run-fundie Christian home, but here in America, this ten speed, one-track mind bike popped my cherry…
Read More"Every time she tried to sketch what she saw in those strange dreams, the image changed. As soon as she captured part of a detail–a button, a viewfinder, a lens, or the things that rippled on its metal surfaces and came alive–the entire shape of the witch's camera transformed and eluded her again..."
Read MoreThe first thing to know is I didn’t want to ruin the moment. You were inside of me and I wasn’t in pain so much as needing tenderness. One word, “gentle.”
Read MoreDoes anyone driving notice the woman stretching, back-arching, visible from the freeway? These are the things my eyes are always scanning for: a daytime crescent moon, a couple in a hotel window, a mockingbird nest in a bougainvillea.
Read MoreBeing put to sleep is loss of control. The moment your body becomes a body. The doctor assures me I will not want to be awake.
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