The sky has never been as far away as it is now. There is an open square of it at the top of the stairwell. A blue summer day shines down from the box of sky, but flight after flight, it is
Read More
The boy wanted to see the sheik levitate. He knew the sheik could do it because everyone in the village said he could. Sitting on the chair that they had placed for him by the window, the boy could see across the
Read More
Streamline missiles hurdle through aerospace like silver finned tuna. Remote guided warhead system, installed with microchip technology, to track and annihilate as though they are sharks, smelling blood for the first time, with their red coned-noses shredding skyline. Efficient killing. Cluster bombs
Read More
My love works the midnight shift at the old folks home for acrobats. Sometimes two or three performances an evening, there’s little sleep at their age. There goes Hank, righting himself in a fit of passion, now Mabel preparing to take the
Read More
I. Wetlands Preserve Wetlands fill again with heavy rains and thin poplar sprout overnight to trap gentle beasts for predator packs. I find more skulls and splintered bones along the creek beds. One skull stares out totemically: giant sockets, teeth the color
Read More
There’s one universe in which he succeeded. He planned for months, bought the guns, shot his mother, drove to the school, and killed 20 children. But that’s only one. There were others. So, in 2012, he got caught before it happened, or,
Read More
(For my sisters. Jessica. Emily. Pearl.) Far from the fire, I squat near the cave’s mouth, waiting to hear it voice cries of a fresh soul, of a sibling. I have heard the sounds before, held brothers and sisters, whispered to them
Read More
The woman steps from the train and the world stops spinning. The platform and the pedestrians fade away before her, unraveling on the exhaust of the underworld, until all that is left is a man. Him. That same boy that used to
Read More
“When do I get to meet your parents?” Emma asks after we finish having sex. And there it is; the dreaded question. I don’t like questions, period, because they all seem to lead back to this one, but at least it’s easier
Read More