Every night since she stays in, thumbing the wheel. She burns napkins and cotton swabs. She burns whatever she can find.

Let the okra go to waste, steal oranges from the
corner store. I'll tell you that I love you like I've
loved no one else. Our bodies are made to be
useful, move fast. The fastest man in

i'm fucking useless and there's nothing going for me
*parents call*
everything's amazing, i'm the best i've ever been

wow it's late. i'm so tired
*yawns*
better eat a

Watching the blood drain was the moment she knew/ that she didn’t have it figured out."

I upended the bottle of Seagram’s gin I always carried with me to poetry readings and cut off my penis with Kemal’s X-ACTO knife.

"My record does not contain the helicopter dream I’ve been having for ten years/where I’m an actor paid by the government to fake a zombie epidemic."

Another family story. I can’t get away from it. As Easter approaches, I find myself thinking about one of my aunts who, when it came to transportation, had only known the transportations of

You could tell Heather was a catcher by looking at her thighs, but she brought an infielder's mitt to the game that day.

Babies from the Dry Counties became a fated élite. From the creamiest of breasts to organic kale pudding and Montessori kindergarten.

Ask her to aim her index fingers.
at you. Aim yours.

Present the conflict or the mother as the conflict or the mother as the object of conflict during childhood.

1.
In human beings, the wink is known to convey one of four emotions:
           Sexual invitation
           False sexual invitation,
           Nonsexual expression of friendliness

That’s / when the purple doors open into steamy / bathtub of surprise. That’s when there’s / an impossibly-deep Prince breath & then—

“I’m helping you get in touch with your heritage,” Susana said to Tom, foisting the grocery bag onto the counter.  She pulled the tub of sour cream out, along with a ziploc bag of cheddar cheese

tracy

what if i opened my mouth and a swarm of bees just, you know. the weather said it might rain, and i was like, 'okay.' this is thinking about tracy. that's like, a city somewhere, in the

My Mother Reads From Her Dream Journal

I.

We—you, me, and your sisters—are in a room the size of a broom closet and you say to me What do I do with this jellyfish? and I don’t understand

GIRL POWER

i’ve slept with someone who had a girlfriend
somewhere else i’ve slept with someone who
told me they loved their ex-girlfriend immediately
after sleeping together i’ve slept

Before, the possums’ noise had been an angry hissing, but now their voices were becoming sweet, even musical, the world of them trilling and humming into their endless, private night.

Can you teach an eighteen-year-old trauma?