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prose

Ghosts

There’s no such thing as ghosts. The shadows I saw in the windows were just that, shadows – or so everyone promised. Figments of my imagination that jumped from the pages of a picture book I read before bedtime. But the shadows didn’t know that, so they followed me. They…

From Me to You to the Apocalypse

Excuse my dramatics. The world is so big and I can only sing my love in extremes, in nuclear roses and cursive armageddon, in ink that’s actually blood and paper that’s actually a sheen of zombie skin. If I say I love you like the stars then you will burn…

Love Aflame

Their first date they played Jenga with lit matches and pick-up sticks with unthreaded needles. The corner of his napkin caught fire and he whipped it dead. A hole opened in his palm, outlined with black powder. They smiled at each other and kissed, passing a lemon wedge between their…

Dear God

Dear God, Last night I woke suddenly, startled awake by some small sound. I lay there, half asleep and frightened, thinking that perhaps it had been nothing at all, but a tiny crackling noise said otherwise. It was something else that made me pause: a human sound, a quick intake…

Notes from Monday’s Appointment

Are you listening?I know it’s easy to forget,but what I’m trying to tell youis your whole life could bea trauma symptom. Are you listening?The memories leftbecause it was kinderthat way. The non-rememberingis a side effectof you. Are you listening?Your mind is not an evil; you have only been made from…

Apparition

They approached in hordes and masses,screaming in throaty, strangled jubilation.A cloud of dust in the outer rimof our vision, the edgeof our flat, bare world. Meanwhile, we pattered through the halls,looked with moonlike faces up at the drafty rafters of the roof,the airy rooms, the gray light, the seagrass aroma.…

today i am a lady

I thought I was dead, butI was only dreaming.The red pigment stained my skinAnd I thought I had bled myself dry.But I don’t have even a little lipstick on the back of my hand when I wake,So I put some on to mark the skin andLet it smear as I…

Future Requiem

This world is making me bleed. Blood and tears and angry sweat, it’s all falling off me and it’s staining my clothes and cutting paths down my cheeks and no one who cares is allowed to do anything. We were told big words of freedom, of liberty and were dazzled…