​I knew a man, older, who was afraid to cry.

I was 11 and my buddy, Dennis, and I
kept hounding Coach Phillips for some chew

And by the third inning, it’s really, truly, shittily finished. “They gave us about twenty minutes of thinking we were in it,” Tim says. “Twenty minutes.”

Jenny Irish and I sat down to discuss her stunning debut, Common Ancestor, with Black Lawrence Press. Her... more

He blew smoke from a loaned cigarette back into my hair, bar rag still in his back pocket from the shift that ended two hours ago. He didn’t understand why I didn’t want him to come over. “Surrender to the stuff, baby.” 

Even if it is addressed to you, this is a letter for me. If it were truly a letter for you,... more

(There they are, stealing the show from the rest of the body: Bette Davis's eyes, wide in perpetual surprise, in... more

The "UTOPIA STUDY" series is a form of experimental architectural photography that focuses on modern architecture in a number of American... more

Parker is the coolest kid in fourth grade. Everyone thinks so. If Parker says something is cool, it’s cool. Period. I don’t know any better, yet. Parker says this band that sings a song about Buddy Holly is cool. I ask around but none of the other fourth graders know what I’m talking about.

Listen to your mother.

She of the red lipstick, the garish slash of mouth that looks like you... more

Depression, like any beast, digests
only what is edible. 

To make your joy indigestible,
follow closely these steps:

Learn... more

I could have no path, no idea of what I should be or how I should live. I could skate through neighborhoods, where I wouldn’t find a Mormon church or anyone who knew I had strayed from the path I was raised to follow

My father inhales smoke from a lone Marlboro,
            shadowed against a sun colored like dead autumn leaves.
He gently... more

Plastic and puke co-exist. Children frolic in the belly, the guts and intestines, the ballpit.

The funeral is over, Eliza is back at work, and she has eaten dinner at home three times now, once alone, even.

The year is 2019 and all our conversations are now about water. Even the conversations not about... more

A Queer Translates Rilke

I long to know his self-described “epic head”
with my eyes closed. But... more

The source was unreliable. It's possible that I was the source.

Patience is one virtue that me and Wayne both got in spades.

The king’s first wife went crazy and no longer obeyed him, so he sent her away.

Since You Left I Have Spent My Days Staring Blankly at the Beer Sign in the Bar From the Time it Opens... more

I walked through the senior hallway, heart beating fast. The boys’ stares burned into my skin as they whispered things to each other.

In my head, dating women was a body competition.

“Mrs. Bolthuis wants you to help her with something. Ride over there and see what she wants. Homework can wait for once.”