- Choke
Over text, an old friend tells me he’s learned how to “choke a bitch” since we were last in bed.
I was drinking bourbon and ginger, much like I am now, thinking about his particular phrasing, remembering how timid …
New Essay
In Love You Learned
How to break a book at the spine, how to rip out the pages without tearing them, how to cut them into
origami squares & how to crease the paper just right. How to fold a bunny, how to fold …
Leavenworth
We’d go skating on Friday nights. Crawl from the backseat of a Trans-Am or a busted Volvo wagon. It didn’t matter how we got there, just that we did. We’d walk down Metropolitan Street, past the prison, acting tough, hoping …
i become a mind reader
at recess, before a throng of candy-blooded classmates. i put on a fruit loop necklace & clap purple chalk on my palms & mumble “abracadabra” to fashion the illusion.
it’s all smoke & mirrors, of course. the real trick is …
A Missed Prayer
I had never attended Eid at a mosque before. Never knelt to bow my face to the earth for salah or prayer. I could hardly recite al-Fatiha, the opening and most principal verse of the Quran. I’d only ever …
