Jane Devin

I had a better Father’s Day post planned, but I can’t find The Picture. The one taken five years before my birth, in which either my son or I appear to be about two years old. It’s hard to tell the gender of the child in the Hawaiian shorts and white t-shirt, but [...]

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 [...]

I understand, from what friends and others tell me, that I was supposed to outgrow this stage, the same way I outgrew believing in the tooth fairy, a benevolent God, or that whole “it’s what’s inside that really counts” deception. Maybe there was supposed to be a revealing shock somewhere along the way [...]

They hang in my closet as a reminder, a small torment, and something of a life jacket. I wore them when I last fell in love, hard and with almost reckless abandon, several years ago.
There was something about this particular pair of jeans that made me feel less humanly flawed and more invincible. [...]