The Truth Stings
she has to ask it again as I lean in closer / “Do you ever have doubt?”
JAKE
Guess I'm A Paper Nautilus Now
This is my chance at freedom. That word is euphoric, I can't help but smile feeling the shapes into which it presses my mouth. That's why today has to be the day.
My doll watched
As we slipped off their dresses and dipped them one-by-one into their pool, Barbie stared, unchanged, and I thought of when I first unboxed her, newly four, half a shelf of dolls beside the built-in closet.
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
I wanted once before to honk my horn against the swastika that he’d drawn on the poster board he got from the Dollar General, but I had the horn’s fuse pulled as a wild experiment in radical pacifism.
Beef Case
The future is a vast and scary place, the recording says. Dead ends, dead dreams, destitution. Only if you’ve been pushing yourself hard enough do you have a chance. You have ten minutes of break. Step it up.
The new clock
and my heart is a crocodile mimicking death. I seek God in a temple
Genesis
no rib bones please!