Midnight was three hours past curfew, and he wouldn’t be home for another two hours after that, at least. The Virgins were being brought up onstage, pink Vs written in lipstick on cheeks to signify that they’d never seen the film. He’d seen it in bits and pieces over the years, snuck in whenever it would come on TV at Halloween and he could catch … Continue reading Unconventional Conventionists
I realized one day, last week, in the shower, that I was the healthiest I’d ever been in my life. Physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, the whole thing. Honestly couldn’t think of a time I’d had everything going well like that. It was hard enough to be healthy in one area of your life, but in all of them? Don’t get me wrong. Things could always … Continue reading Shower Thoughts
I’ve decided that while I’m editing the second Waldo novel and developing the third, I’m going to research and write a new, completely different novel. Bloodwood is the story of a Viking seeking a chance at redemption while carrying on the story of the family he has lost. Here’s what I have of the first page so far. Now it’s time for more intensive … Continue reading Bloodwood
The day I saw my mom again, it was cloudy, and gray, and cold, and I got off the bus about a mile early to pick up kitty litter. I hadn’t planned the stop, wasn’t even sure I needed to, but I did it anyway. Maybe a part of me knew what would happen. Lugging the 20 lb. box home wasn’t practical, but I was … Continue reading Don’t Forget the Kitty Litter
When he first came across it, it looked to him like the bowl of a giant toilet. It was porcelain, gleaming white, and it curved up to a lid at the top. The bowl was about six feet around, the black hole of a drain it fed into three feet around. But that was it–no tank, no handle to flush. Just the bowl of a … Continue reading They Weren’t People
It’s amazing the lengths you’ll go to to connect two homes in your head. You’ll take a walk next to a razor-wire-fence-protected golf course and remember a similar one back home, the only difference being that here there’s North Carolina red dirt in place of the rich black kind you’ll find in Chicagoland. You’ll pass by the hole that’s been cut into the fence and … Continue reading Stay Hungry
“I’m okay now. Really, I am. I know you didn’t ask, but I had to say it. How long has it been since we’ve spoken, Mom? Two years? Three? I’m losing count. I don’t know if this will go through to you, don’t know if you even check this Facebook account anymore. Back in my college days, you kept it up, shared photos and statuses … Continue reading Read 11:42 PM
It’s not possible to remember your sippy cup days. Not really, anyway. All you can remember are the images of this time, the old polaroids scratched from years being shuffled around in lockboxes, then safety deposit boxes, then storage space, clouded with whatever light source was present back then, smoke in the air from before it was known that secondhand smoke could kill, your parents … Continue reading Sippy Cup Days
As we sat on the yellowed grass next to the crumbling remains of your childhood home, you with your fishnets and Converse, me with my combat boots and rolled-up jeans, both of us with our shades on against the setting sun, we both took in this time we had together, this one last night before you’d move several states away to go off to art … Continue reading One Last Night
I don’t have signal to call you and I don’t have time to text so I’m doing this through talk to text I apologize for any typos I don’t know exactly where I’m at it’s completely dark I felt around for any doors or Windows but there’s nothing the only light I have is from this phone and my battery is at less than 5% … Continue reading recording4291901984_MMS1.25.2018
