Practice

Everyone in a bar is supposed to look at least a little jovial. Isn’t what’s on that TV fascinating? Aren’t you perfectly okay with how your friend is saying that same thing that always hurts your feelings? Isn’t it totally okay with you that your boyfriend is late, and you’ve been sitting there alone forever, […]

Full Stop

I had to pull over my car and yell at my friend last night. We had been talking politics. “I can’t talk about this anymore!” He looked at me. “I’m too upset!” Normally, I would have clammed up, had a glass of wine, and nursed my little resentment until the next time I saw him– […]

Two Kinds of Gone

My great-grandma’s apartment is gone. Every day I drove past it to get my coffee. Two tall towers that never really belonged there—stuck up like two fingers in the midst of a short, small neighborhood. The buildings lost and lost, diminished and diminished like sandcastles on a beach, but sharp. They got sharper, not smoother. […]

Stray

We have a completely jungular side yard. The compound teeters on “Grey Gardens” territory now, minus the connections to old money. I found the cat, squatting to poop. I averted my eyes, waiting. It took a long time, and the way it happened, she looked ill. Maybe she ate something bad. I went upstairs and […]