The letter said, “I’m not as pretty as I used to be.” Underneath was written the time his train would arrive...…
The expectation that my first step on campus this fall would declaw the kindred estrangement that had latched onto me since 2020…
If you said, long ago when we were /
young, when the Sun flew like an idol /
and mothered us, that we’d crouch…
sunscreen-covered cheeks mark late spring / when blisters blossom on palms and a waft / of overripe coconut dances with freshly cut…
Amid the achromic / graphite pencils and the fine-tip / washable markers
and the / ballpoint gel pens, you pick / her out…
I started collecting them / like a middle-aged woman / collects coupons / saving them / like mementos / of strangers
whose faces…
I went into the Superstore looking for a head of lettuce. / In the snack aisle, I found my sixth grade classroom:…
Remember / the three / little pigs / how they / smoked up—the chimneys / and rafters, how they / sang like…
My lola was a teacher, a young / visionary. She taught her sons how to plant rice / fields that stretch to…
The cat eats plastic, obsessively, / like a real freak, and it seems we’re always / ripping something out of his mouth...…