Blame all the wrong books I read at thirteen.Blame my cold blooded birth in late December.Blame the truth for how dark it gets,blame the bite down, the pinned wrists— dearest, here it is: I wasn’t raised right.But I don’t need a daddy, don’t want somegoddamn gentleman. Romance is for show-offs.Roses, a waste of nature in…
1. A splinter driftsthrough a soot-slathered sun ray,its light: blue in orange orthat orange glowing. Beside the fence’s sunlit face,wrapped in a calico quilt,my head tilts and I seepressed into tire treada snow-nibbled leaf. Nine years afloat,the sky, dressed as water,neighs at headlightsthrummed awakewhen Coyote’s teethjewels the mesa’s rim. 2. I turn to my left…
You can tell whether a bird has a mateif there are pinfeathers on its head, new feathersthat start out as stubs full of blood then enshroudthemselves in a white scaly coat as they grow.Preening releases the feather, but a bird can’t reachthe top of its own head. A mate, a friend, or childpreens that spot,…
Some of you walked as though you were walking on coals of fire. Some of you as though in the field of arboles you remembered from when you were younger, when your fathers taught you how to pull the chilis from the stem, though there were no stems and you were on lookout for other…
I, a deaf man, thankhearing aidsfor not working,How many insults I did not hear! in full mystery ofpersonhood Itoe, naked, talking to you, God, since I am afraid to find myself alone. I now have 24 hours 00 secondsbeforetwo menshove my cooling body into an ambulance van —I know a death that can be explained is…
Tongues started wagging after Nazan Abla, our next-door neighbor’s daughter, was hospitalized for a week. I heard her mother tell my mother through the kitchen window that she had a bleeding ulcer. But the real gossip started after her hospital stay. In the year that followed, she broke up with her fiancé, took a job…
Every spring since 1923, thousands of playgoers have attended an open-air performance known as the Ramona Pageant in the San Jacinto foothills near Hemet, California. Mexican music echoes throughout the natural amphitheater as Native Americans dance and chant, the US cavalry charges in, and Franciscan priests pray for them all. Nearly 400 costumed volunteers enact…
Excerpt from Fellowship Point Dick thought he’d drive to the prison himself. His wife, Polly, couldn’t do it. Doctor’s orders. She wasn’t to drive until the cast came off. Annoying. Exasperating! He had to wait until he could slip away. If she caught him, she’d keep him from going. In the meantime, he watched…
When Julia fell down the basement stairs of Emmaus House and bruised her hip so badly she couldn’t stand, I should have made her congee to help her recover. The dish is easy enough to cook, only slightly more demanding than toast. It falls in the family of comfort-mush including oatmeal, polenta, farina, and grits….
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