THE STILL On their first date, they attend a socially distanced rooftop gala in flapper wear. It’s New Year’s Eve, 2021, Brooklyn. Martha is a…
VIEW FROM A MOUNTAIN RIDGE “Mom,” I ask on the way to the car, “Do you remember hiking with me on the Appalachian Trail?” Single…
SINKING At the very beginning, a few incoherences, everyday objects disappearing and suddenly reappearing in unusual places: keys in the fridge, a bag of lemons…
CHEATING AT WAR I invented generals and pulled them out to the field unfairly which means palming kings, putting them at top of the…
WHAT COLOR YOU ARE WEARING I WILL remember like i am prey hiding in the grasses. a baby boy got eaten last week and they…
CHARACTER LIMITS Age 12 Angela inserts a floppy disk into the drive. “You know that story you wrote last week? I turned it into…
SLAIN Death is something we live with all the time my Sunday School teacher says after class and she could’ve said it before class, too,…
THE DAILY SEDUCTION OF BEING THIS PERSON INCLUDES KNOWING MY MOTHER LOVED ME Ray Charles singing “You Don’t Know Me” aside, you can know someone.…
RECONCILIATION To: TanishaKay@HappyArt.Org May 20, 2020 Hi Tanisha, I hope this email finds you well. I understand you may not want to hear…
REFLECTIONS The day I was born my mother gave birth to the same child twice. At least, that is how I live the first few…
LONGEVITY, BRIEFLY No grass is as rooted as Bermuda with its beard of roots mingling like sentences in the filth of clarity. No song has…
THE FARSI TEACHER That fall every one of his students was an American who was married to an Iranian. Lord, but they butchered the language…
A RUMBLE FOR HUMANITY Your heroes can compromise you. Muhammad Ali put me at risk. The first time I encountered Ali, then Cassius Clay, was…
ARTIFACTS When I was growing up, I hated the crowded shelves in the living room, den, and hallway of our Upper West Side apartment. “I…