When She Holds You
“As you hang up and run to her, laughing through tears, she will lift you up, twirl you around. When she holds you, she does it like a mother.”
Moccasin Millennial
So Confusing Sometimes
“We slide into the car, turn up the radio, and drive to her apartment, where she’ll invite me up and we’ll play with her Siamese rescue, doing our best to pretend her ex-boyfriend isn’t there.”
Cautions of a Coffin Carrier
“Every inch of my body should be poised, ready to absorb. Instead, my femur trembles with livewire intensity down my calf, a shocking rhythm that threatens my own aortic tantrum.”
How to Survive the Doll Maker
“The next time the healer comes, pass him the folded photos, the etched names, the scrawled birthdays and disassociate completely.”
The Stone Swallower
“Staring into that dirt floor, I bent my body into a form of prayer itself, even if it was only as a means of escaping…”
Chasing Ceremony
“I may not remember that very first ceremony, but that same dirt floor felt—somehow—like being back home, in Pinedale, long before I’d ever land there.”
Hey Mama
Photo by Alex Muromtsev
“I carry the ghosts of five finals beneath my eyes, and I have no extra bandwidth left for graduation, family, or posing. Still, I am excited…”
Rose Painted Palms
“When I first opened the newspaper and unfolded your smile stretched serenely above your name, I remembered how you first came to me; seemingly a death doula, a mother, to guide me through loss. . .”
Of Blood and Baskets
“Doctors never saw it on x-rays quite the same way the healers had. Instead, nurses pawed at my abdomen, mistook it as nothing more than blood-clots. I’m so sorry, they whispered…”
Vigil for Life
“A shadow in the door, his fingers curled around my cellphone. His eyes widened at seeing me in the ER . . . He took a step forward, hesitating before pulling away…”