Humanity: Raw & Unfiltered
I take the Plan B at 8am sharp in the Walgreens’ parking lot. He says he’ll split the cost with me, but we never talk again. I blink, and I’m 15, ravenous, researching male species. The toll to impregnate their mate. Of course he drowns his Anas Read more
Before sunrise I’m flipping through a catalogue of men, A parade of men looking for relationships, super closeups, Guys in ball caps, blurry headed, sideways, in bed, crazy Faces with monsters, in cubicles, beside lattice fences, Strapped into car seats, in the shower, in private airplanes And parking lots, with Read more
I had been someone’s wife. When he died, I was someone’s widow. I could hardly breathe, carrying the weight of us in me. One pint at a time, Ben and Jerry’s Karamel Sutra soothed, but the feeling of longing took me down, longing for us and longing now for me. Read more
“You look tired.” Yeah. “Late night?” No….no, it’s not that. I’m tired of trying change; of trying to heal from the trauma; of trying to discover a plateau of self-acceptance; of trying to be an adequate person, and better wife; of trying to worry less about being a good mother. Read more
I can’t remember where I was when Father got home that day. Probably, I was somewhere inside the house; maybe I was in the living room. Maybe sitting cross-legged on the dingy, frayed oriental rug that had tufts of cat and dog and probably human hair tangled in its tassels Read more
Just be glad you can get pregnant, they say. Just be glad it happened early before you got too attached. Just be glad your body took care of it and you didn’t need a D&C. Just be glad you don’t live in a state that would treat you as a Read more
Baltimore, Maryland July 1985 I curled two fingers under the chin of my mask and tore it off. I chipped away at myself with the tip of a syringe when no one else would do it for me. The nurse’s assistant, the friend of a friend’s cousin from the suburbs, Read more
