Anhedonia is a subset of depression.It is the inability to feel pleasure. Step with me, mud toed and silent,into the mirror of water.Bodies remember the water,womb slick, the building of bone. Into the mirror of waterripple beside me, below me.Womb slick, the building of bone.Memory cold in your mouth. Ripple beside me, below me.Nothing sustains…
More than most, forthis I feelif I have itall is well:wrangled upinto a ball,handsome reelfrom wriggled scrawl,or lapping strandstwisted thin, thenturned aroundtheir spool or cone, inV’s, in X’s,so much there’sno need to thinkhow much is there.Soft, let loose, butcuts if taut, so,careful, snip thechosen spotto knot a knot orhang a bell,sew a book,secure a scroll,…
The problem is the metalmarks kinetic in my belly.The problem is their tinsel wings stick in my trachea.The problem is regurgitating everything I swallow.The problem, truly, is the feeling of my empty mouth.The problem is I have nothing to say about the warsor genocide except I cannot comprehend a godwho sheds mercy on those with…
The landlord was a blind man who rattled the front grillethe first of the month—or last, can’t remember, but alwaysit woke me, the rattling for the rent, his hand like a brokenwing shoved through a hole in the grille. He was vinyl blackand just as shiny. A glossy John Crow. Eyes milky marble,unblinking stare pinning…
I do not know what to say but that there was a deersitting in the middle of the highway. She had been hit,but she was alive and folded like a drawing.She was looking at me from her place on the median.The traffic was filing around her and I could notstop. The traffic was filing around…
Called widow makers because their branches fallduring droughts. They sever their own branches to conserve water, to save the whole tree. As if cuttingoff a hand to save a whole body. How does the tree decide what to drop? This one dropped two limbs,one onto a car. It only took the men a day to remove the…
No matter where I went todayI was not Michael.I was not even the shadowof my middle name.No name took my place,no name was asked.When I sat on a benchthinking of you, tryingto see your face,I was not Michael—I knew because the rainchose to fall nearbut not upon me,and it wasn’t to makean exception.People were walking…
Friday—first day of fall Two friends, two beers each. One has just held the hand of theother’s dying mama, regaling her with tales of her son’smisadventures. He’s moving to Houston the next day, far intothe flooding swamp. Mama is quiet, peaceful, pain-free. Go, shesays, go have a good time. After the two beers the friends…
My roommate was having an argumentwith his girlfriend: It’s the wrong key. No it’s not. Well it isn’t working. Once you and I had disagreements like that,I ended it. But there was a pointwhen I had a codeto your front door. People had the wrong idea about us.No socks on the stairswas one of your…
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