“What took you so long?” she asks. She seldom asks me that when we’re done, but today I feel ready to protract the glory, to tease out its rise and fall like the lingering chords of a Debussy pastorale.

Do you want this, you ask, and hand me a blue silk shirt of hers with small yellow flowers. I'm afraid to say no, in case it makes you remember all over again.

Meet Carl. He's six-three, two hundred and thirty pounds. He has light-brown hair,…

I climb up on the sofa and stand next to him. I smell something.

[Party!]

"I was born very far from where I'm supposed to be. And so I'm on my way home."--Bob Dylan I don't owe you anything. If I'm a recluse what does it have to do with you? I have the right to be poor. Some things cannot be explained away by letters that…

The day Eugene told me his secret he gave me a bouquet of lilies. Ice clung to the petals like fuzz. Sorry about the frost, he said. That was an accident.

There is just something about a thin, white cotton v-neck t-shirt, he thought, as he ran his hand over bleary eyes and dehydrated lips. He wanted her, as always. But he needed just a little more rest. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail. It…

Emi watched the Perez sisters show each other support. It brought back memories of Mayumi giving her support, even fighting for her.

I am fair game that will be hunted and eaten, cutting its edge with Satan's tears from six eyes.

Wednesdays were humiliating. Third graders had to bring in twenty-five cents for class dues. If you forgot, the teacher would write your name on the board and it would stay there until you settled your debt. My family could afford the weekly quarter; the problem was…

years later, she won’t go near the trees

Ah, how sweet is forbidden fruit, how delicious undiscovered sin!

I lift up my sweatshirt and reach with a full fist into my belly button. This is where the fat comes out.

Too many sparrows flit and twitter here./ Let’s go inside. The sky is far too big/ and the sun bears down on us like searchlights.