Is it my faultmy best days are gone?That I strive more fruitlesslywith every effort?I wasn’t enough.I guess I could have been,if I wasn’t so busypretending I was goodat pretending. I know you knew —since I’m making admissions —knew I had moreto give.Did you know I knewtoo?I held on to things you wanted.You called them my… Continue reading Soft

“My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.” — Audre Lorde, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” It’s tightin my gut like I swallowedsomething whole andhave been holding it intestinally,unable to will myselfto let go. This grip hasgrown strong over long yearsof winding my wayof being aroundand around it… Continue reading Elephant

July 4 has come and gone again. All day my thoughts meandered through a muggy haze of irony. Maybe it was the week of increasingly prolific explosions giving suburbia a nightly theatrical production of the dangerous conditions that inspire Syrian and Palestinian families to seek refuge so far from their ancestral homes. Or maybe

“God! I’m surrounded by drunk people,” she swore. We walked briskly past the patio rails, which only almost contained the Saturday night revelry spilling out of the bars. “‘Sinners! Dirty sinners, every one of them!’