When she looks back at me, there’s a saturnine hopelessness in her eyes I understand too well.

When she looks back at me, there’s a saturnine hopelessness in her eyes I understand too well.

Wild as the jungles they came from,
where boas flexed around their trunks —
like my other brushes with miracles,
the men who love you back, how they come
to you, gorgeous and invasive,

Wild as the jungles they came from,
where boas flexed around their trunks —
like my other brushes with miracles,
the men who love you back, how they come
to you, gorgeous and invasive,

Jimmy’s thing was his violent ability in soccer. Bismarthalou’s was in his preposterous name and the mystifying way in which he spoke of his potentially fictitious motherland.

Jimmy’s thing was his violent ability in soccer. Bismarthalou’s was in his preposterous name and the mystifying way in which he spoke of his potentially fictitious motherland.

“There’s no reason to spread melodramatic rumors about the delay of the album,” she says

“There’s no reason to spread melodramatic rumors about the delay of the album,” she says

When they first met dirty talk felt like solving timed coding challenges at a job interview.

When they first met dirty talk felt like solving timed coding challenges at a job interview.

She was the sudden presence that filled the delivery room like a creation spirit pressing his thumb to make a wrinkle in space.

She was the sudden presence that filled the delivery room like a creation spirit pressing his thumb to make a wrinkle in space.

I fall asleep on the First Date. It happens when we're cresting the chain hill of a roller coaster called Sallie Mae.

I fall asleep on the First Date. It happens when we're cresting the chain hill of a roller coaster called Sallie Mae.

When I was ten years old something happened, an event I never understood

When I was ten years old something happened, an event I never understood

I've finished packing and am leaving. Ten, nine, eight, seven . . . .

I've finished packing and am leaving. Ten, nine, eight, seven . . . .

There’s something so sexy about a hot girl apologizing for my behavior.

There’s something so sexy about a hot girl apologizing for my behavior.

Toothpaste dripped and stained the rubber grip. The bristles were yellowed, fanned out and frayed, like a spiky cleaning tool that should go nowhere near the mouth. Some of the bristles were actually hairs.

Toothpaste dripped and stained the rubber grip. The bristles were yellowed, fanned out and frayed, like a spiky cleaning tool that should go nowhere near the mouth. Some of the bristles were actually hairs.

What the Mother wanted to show us might be different from what we wanted to see.

What the Mother wanted to show us might be different from what we wanted to see.

“My grandma drinks that,” the kid ahead of me at Duane Reade snarks at my six-pack of Ensure bottles.