Olive skin. Slender fingers adorned with rings. And long painted fingernails, click clacking against a table top. Rieba always wore one of two outfits: Swishy pants and over-sized sweatshirts with cute graphics on the front, like kittens in a basket of yarn Or an emerald green, Asian-inspired robe that had black piping at the collar. 1970s…
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My grandfather’s old shirt
To the captain of the concrete ship
The boy with the concave chest
The boy with the concave chest Wanted the world to know he loved me He recycled poems and made gestures So over the top, you could see them from the moon He put words into my mouth And pulled them back out like a string of pearls clicking against teeth The boy with the concave…
Read moreFor Racheal
Something about a sunny weekend Reminds me of you and melted push-pops And hard plastic shoes Baseball in the neighbor’s yard And standing on top of buckets To fill up water balloons Building forts out of anything we could find And laying on couches, crying with sunburns If we close our eyes hard enough, we…
Read moreAfter we part
Dear Lilly
Dear Lilly, There are going to be several points in your life when you feel like you do not belong. Embrace these moments. Do not listen to the people who pat you on the head and tell you not to worry. Dismiss the assuring tone when someone says, “You’re just like everyone else.” It’s…
Read moreCousins
Cousins More like war buddies We break in the same places We close our eyes and Smile at the same smells Coffee, grain and fingernail polish Holding hands through hell We were trauma bonded We did our hiding in closets instead of trenches In case of questions We took care to make our stories consistent…
Read moreVeterans’ Day
I lost my grandpa Swede the day after my 22nd birthday. I remember when my phone rang. I was driving to the airport to visit to NYC for the first time. I knew exactly what happened when I heard my brother’s voice on the other end of the line. My mom couldn’t bring herself to…
Read morePioneers
Warmth from the sun on the back on her legs No need to squint; Anything that’s more than ten feet away doesn’t matter now She is completely abreast of his breathing Silent but she can see his chest rise and fall from the corner of her eyes Their skin radiates; Not touching but hyper aware…
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