My child could draw that.

Adam and Deb’s kid— Jonathan— is standing center stage, looking out at the crowd and desperately trying to remember his next line. It’s probably his first play, unlike my little Lucy. She did her time

I am the only enemy now.

So Mom didn’t come with us to the grocery
store, but she insisted when a box of Grape Nuts
or Popsicles tasted off it was because we hadn’t
selected the box behind the first, that hiding
in the

I walk the empty lot behind it gathering creosote to make a salve. I say empty, but that is only out of convention.

After the earth becomes a brutalist’s wet concrete dream...

It sat in my wallet while I made out with a guy during the “Josie and the Pussycats” movie

I never mixed meth with hooking. Not once. I didn’t want to ruin it! (Meth, I mean.)

Be sure it's not wrapped...

Do you see how I did that? All that pain I brought up about my sister went right under the rug.

When the first billionaire exploded I was at the drive-thru with my dad.

Mom couldn’t understand why we were so interested in him, the old man who shuffled through the park, waving his metal detector over the thick summer grass, digging up hub caps and toothbrushes and

"Ryan" and "LMGTFY"

After that, I attended his streams 24/7.

The whale, halter top and pigtails, flops back onto the couch with a script.

...not enough steroids, / the wrong steroids... 

An ancient warning, handed down as northern European folklore: “Woe to that child which when kissed on the forehead tastes salty. He is bewitched and soon must die.” 

"Lint Roller," "Procrastinator," and "Haircut"

It takes falling in love, staying there...

It’s August in Manhattan when we both decide to leave. You accept a job in LA and my boyfriend packs my life in a U-Haul and drives it to our new apartment together in Pittsburgh. 

When I toss

...How to say / hello without breaking / stride...

The funeral home gave me a special calendar to keep track of the Yahrzeit until 2034, but after that I will be on my own.

Leigh Chadwick goes into the bathroom, turns off all the lights and spins around three times while chanting, Leigh Chadwick, Leigh Chadwick, Leigh Chadwick

"Sitting on Our Half of the Porch..." and "I Had a Dream Last Night..."

It is a miraculous thing, this audible sun.

o lion mane and petalled armore, / you sweet corona of twist & curl...