He had one of those cool lighters – brushed metal case, tiny chimney with a pattern of holes, bright heat when flint... more

after Britney Spears

The camera pans—is this... more

"Honestly, I don't care if language overtakes story." 

When I was young, I never kept a journal. Instead, my understanding of the world—and myself within in it—got wound up in 500-plus battered tapes that have followed me through life.

We’re practicing doing timed tests for the AP Language and Comp exam, and the prompt Ms. Anniker gives us is “What Are You Proud Of?” I think immediately, “my chin” 

Amy lives right off Pike beneath a fire escape in one of the many alleys that connect to the street. She’s fifteen years old and loves Madonna.... more

The thing I can't wrap my head around, when it comes to the 2003 Detroit Tigers, is what it must have... more

I was standing in line for a movie and a movie played in my head.
I was standing in line for a movie and the movie I was waiting to see... more

This was the summer after seventh grade, and all my thoughts were sinful, according to the church. The year before I had confessed all my crimes and a man in hip waders held me under water until all the evil in me had fled the power of Christ’s approach, but now, in the early stages of my adolescence, I was obsessed with the opposite sex.

Dear Naomi,

Please find enclosed some clippings from the local fishwrapper.  I’ve underlined the... more

Most nights I would take communion with Willis Alan Ramsey, a one trick pony like me, but I hadn’t even run yet.

You need to know
the world used to be softer.
This new color sharpens & blinds.

When it arrived,
people crashed their cars,
stumbled... more

My senior year of high school I kissed a boy in the parking lot of a supermarket and found out the next day that my grandmother had died of liver failure.

My first boyfriend collected knives. He was the kind of boy who listened to Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne, who liked to draw superheroes... more

Soon after I received my first eye injection a decade ago, the movie list began. “It reminds me of that scene in... more

Amoral Impurity

Picking at ingrown
pubes on the porch swing
in the sun on the first
summery day... more

I can’t see the future, though sometimes I see someone on the street and think it’s someone I know, but it’s not; a few minutes later, I see the person I’d thought the other person was. 

I vomit discretion, magic tricks, a glass ashtray. I take a break
from vomiting & light a bottle rocket.

“Recorded learned and mixed in two days” sounds like exactly the sorta shenanigans we were all about.

That morning, I rolled over with the intention of apologizing. I'd meant everything I'd said, but none of it was enough for me to end anything. It was the hazards of a relationship; I had to decide if I was losing myself or becoming better.

I crave the lack of my thousand siblings...

For a moment, regardless of our lives, everything the light touches is warm and friendly, and we are all indeed in the same circle: Access Member Humans who love Access Member Dogs and can put up with their people for three hours because we also love baseball.

I am lonely and just learning how to say I'm lonely...

This Essay Isn't About the NBA Finals Because... more

Picture a village in south Punjab. Flat, irrigated land, low distant hills, rice and wheat fields.

When he wasn't looking / I snuck / a spoonful...