The haircut: 1972
Was he calculating a plan while clipping my hair? He lingered over every move, swirled strands with the tip of his hand. Softly he said: I’m going to get this just right for you. Customers left one...
Sometimes I am just like him
When I eat a pomegranate, I cut the red ball in half. I don’t feel sorry about puncturing it right to the core. I don’t feel sorry about puncturing it right to the core. Her seeds are...
After sucker punch
Some of you will never know what it’s like to crawl on your hands and knees to the nearest pleasant memory. Holding in your tears, any vulnerability is a weakness. You touch gold, think you’ve found safety. Only to find out, you...
Like that guy
I hired Arnie to shovel: hurt pride, weathered face too old for his babyface. He said he can’t never get a break, he’s always bumping bottom. But my square-point shovel stands ankle-deep in red clay since Arnie took...
Poem for my father
Did you enjoy hitting? My mother, your woman? Did you love shouting? That you never wanted us and to my mother Shut your cake-hole, you mental bitch? As though you could reduce her To a mere slobbering mouth. Slapped. Did you...
Waking up at Mom’s one month after the assault
“The name Remy is primarily a gender-neutral name of French origin that means Oarsman.” –babynames.com When I wake up the sun is out. Trump has elected himself. One sea has proliferated sweetly, as love does, into many, reaching through ice and breathing hot breath. Mom...
Zyxedarian
Zip code that defined a decade: 98201 You’d think I was in Everett the whole ten years but it was only a fraction of that. Xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet and one...
Hunger
I have seen those eyes before, the subtle stare that lingers and sums you in their glint— eye’s iridescence. Those eyes that speak for wordless lips that salivate and circle— taste of tender skin. Eyes that long to run rippling fingers along your spine and descend into the cavern at your core. I have seen those...
On lack of consent
When he comes and shoves his lips against mine; a rock through an already fragile window, my interior crumbles, the bricks of a solid house shake, and the nails keeping everything together force their way out of the wood. He...
Recommended Reading
The acknowledgement
I’m trying to be gentle with myself, but what if I never believe my body when it tells me what happened?
Have the time of your life!*
*Common side effects may include but are not limited to: harassment, stalking, getting drugged, passing out in...
To the fathers who do not abuse their daughters
On my street I am witness to the young men who carry the pink-flowered backpacks of little girls, who...
