YA Story: Mila, 17

Dr. X is pretty in a very clean looking way. Her brown skin glows with a copper tint. She has long, shiny cornrows tied back with a sky blue ribbon, perfect teeth, and slender, feminine hands. My mottled genes roil as I sit on the other side of her desk. I [...]

The Winston Woman

I saw her standing in the checkout line the other day. She was wearing a black leather jacket, and the pair of Vuarnet’s I’d given her for her 35th birthday. Her dark hair was messy, and there was an air of do-not-care about her as she waited her turn with a container of yogurt, [...]

With Eyes That Watch the World and Can’t Forget

Dear Vincent,
I left off wanting to be the girl under the tree, with wild hair and apricots falling around my feet, the one who scrawls words dangerously, with no consideration of time or consequence.   I also shared my fear of being forever, instead, the draftsgirl.  Carefully engineered, a single life drafted, one side, straight lines, [...]

She Jumps, and Has Her Reasons


The Proposal

All that pent-up passion, where does it go? It travels in endless loops and spirals like a lost and wild thing that can’t find its natural environment. It cries out in unremembered dreams, and wakes in the morning to buttons and buzzers, fluorescent lights, and just enough sun to keep it thirsty and [...]

Rearrange the Walls when Necessary

I.
Everyday brings about some evolution
of thought or matter or circumstance.
You have everything you need to forge ahead, you know,
except the unbreakable spirit.
II.
How many times will you drag yourself to the wall?
How many times will you scrape your spirit against the bricks?
I know what they told you, but it’s time to let it go.
No [...]