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“Look what you have done, Daddy. Those people in the little houses can stay in their homes. My friend, Bill, lives there. He is the neatest guy. Can we go see him sometime?” “We have to go to the hospital for your treatment today, Johnny. Maybe.” “Maybe what? They saidContinue Reading

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In part, our cellar is a well.When the ground swells, pregnant with ocean brineand rain, the water rises: murky and dustclotted,filtered through groundfloor pores. In part, I remembermy mother downstairs in the slow, slow, steady tide, I remember herwildness, brave and rockjawed in the face of her house, her house’sbetrayal.Continue Reading

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My mother worries onebone in her body like the windwarps a grain field. It is the glowingmetal rod in her left shin — the poetry dowsing rod. At night she sleeps stilland the rod points up to her blood-pumping heart, twice out, years longto work, still — and glows blueContinue Reading

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She struggles to breathe in the icy air,gulping trouble and guile from voicesnot her own. She has learned to skate betweendazzlers and blunderers on the gridlockedcity rink, ankles burning with intent andtentative discovery of the sweetspot for equipoise, remaining mostly upright,steering into a valiant glide, knowinga fall is imminent, inescapablewhenContinue Reading

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This day limps and whimpersin a sudden mob of jeers and taunts.Remorse muscles in, blockingthe tease of possible lightwith a fuggy pulse of wayward,gravel-blind, monstrous self-absorption. This is the end of the worldand only imps and devils are afoot,the wrecks beset by iron-hearted lootersstealing movement from the air, invitinga tepidContinue Reading

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There’s a story in this, girls,and it doesn’t have any wolves in it for now, though you never knowwhat might come down the lane, in Neverland, especially nearthat mermaid bog of old. Which is the gateway toThemyscira, truth be told, though no one ever seemsto want to know where theContinue Reading

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II. One way of looking at itSever the notion of quest from bloodand you get girls, leastways if the bloodis othered and the quest is sticky withswords and snares, beset with spitefulnymphs and pitiless trials, fool’s goldguarded by dragon-fire, the road toilluminant decency – or what passes as –marked byContinue Reading

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When I slam on the brakes,I plunge headlong intoa proverbial brick wall,nothing is the same. My figure sprawls on the groundstunned, unable to accessmy abilities. I submit my bodyto rigorous testingto locate my Achilles’ heel. All these testsand treatmentsdo not empower me,improve function. I am weak, curledin the fetal positionContinue Reading

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I possessa lease agreement 40 some oddpages detailing the story of my lifetime as a heroineon this planet. No small printonly a straightforward agreement to bestow my talentand treasureto my fellow man anointeduntil my last breathto instill my legend. I’m at the pointin my contractwhere I see my ownvulnerability. LifeContinue Reading

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The bullets you lobat me bounceoff my field of impenetrability. Day by day the layers of fatunder my skinbecome my armor,necessaryto protect mefrom a worldinspired with hatefor anything other —odd, weird, different unusual —not dimensionalenough to fit intoan overhead bin insidethe forehead. Their punchesbounce off my body armor absorbingthe impact,Continue Reading