There is a ceramic pot full of my mother’s cigarette butts on the front steps of my childhood home, hot-glued back together by my father after one of our cats saw a chipmunk, and went for it.

The first time I went to the opera I went because I wanted to see a man go to hell. My dad got us tickets to Don Giovanni and at the end Don Giovanni refuses to apologize for the terrible things he’s

it's dead at the bar so I say
"sure but I'm not in college
and I'm not wearing underwear

Dream that you are asleep 
beneath a mosquito net 
next to your mother
who is always singing. 
Forget that you are sixty. 
Time flies when you’re 
surviving with meals to eat, 
people to talk

A dog would live too long. An axolotl would stink the house. Reptile equipment is confusing, complex. I’m allergic to cats. What I really wanted was a sibling, or my father. I was thirteen. We bought

Pan and the Nanny Goat

                         After ancient Pompeii marble sculpture
 

The God of the Wild yanks his lover's chin hair, 
clasps her knee, his godhood fully aroused.

“You should just ask yourself what your needs are,” Stephanie says. She raises an eyebrow, takes a sip of sangria, swallows loudly. “Once you know, then you’ll meet the right guy.”

I glare

She hands me a carved pineapple. Big and heavy.

OUR CHEESE FRIES WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Moments before we depart for his fifty-fourth birthday bowling extravaganza, King-King decides he would rather eat lunch at Fat Nancy’s

In the open office, everyone has questions. Now you have questions.

It was 2006, and I had just arrived in Florida for a marine biology excursion sponsored by a certain theme park that dabbles in ocean rehabilitation. To spare myself from any lawsuits, let’s just call it Ocean Planet.

When I arrive at my assigned campsite I find. cheerios scattered everywhere.

I live a life of humiliation, but the most embarrassing, most shameful thing I ever did was get thin for a couple years.

In ancient Greece, it was believed that the uterus moved around inside the female body – like something winged

I miss your piercings, Mina, I say. 

Don’t, she says. 

Me too. Jordan brightens. You looked like a suicide girl. It was hot. 

If I put on my socks from
seventh grade
if I told you I was made
of strawberry filling would you

I don’t want to lead you on: this is not a love song. More of a reply to the note you did not write to the Dear Ashley column that also does not exist. 

I took to wearing your ring again because everybody likes dealing with a woman who’s married. They want a winner.

You empty your bank account of the $1,326 and sink it all into Facebook advertisements.

"Intake" and "Progress"

The great thing about Betty and Rosalynn Carter working together was showing the world how to find common ground even when coming from different political stances. We could use a lot more of that right now.

Many a novel today is a screenplay with feelings. 

When we were five or six, well before that shot, we walked together in those woods. It was fall and we had just touched, for the first time that I can remember, in his room, under blankets. They were either 101 Dalmatians or Power Rangers-themed

THE TENSION

Sliced peach cool

under fresh yoghurt,

steaming creamy coffee,

the slow, dark wake of an October morning.

Difficult to pull myself

away from comfort and

the waves of

After high school, I moved from Minnesota to Texas. Average annual number of Tornados in Minnesota: 41.9. Average annual number of tornados in Texas: 146.7.