Her first experience was a penetrating itch. This sensation was layered on top of blistering pain shooting from her right head into her eye. It was not the kind of feeling diminished by vigorous scratching, as is the case following a bug bite. Hers was a jaw-clenching urgency to...
I want to state up front that the basis for this idea is NOT originally mine, so I’ll explain where it came from below. Like a lot of my stories, it’s a bit long. In my teenage years and early adulthood, I lived in Glendale, Arizona. I made my summer money...
I used to remember.The way the trees below meant nothing to Orion.I used to think.I wonder if he huntsin Greensboro. Where pines cover grass which covercivil disobedience kept as tight asorion to mrigathe deer in the sky.forever disagreeingforever at war. Read More in Poetry
ar • dent /ˈɑːdənt/ adj. 1. The feeling of blood racing rapidly through the veins. 2. The ache of the heart after cruel, raw rejection. 3. All that is evoked when the human soul is moved / The hidden tear behind a father who cannot feed the five little heads clinging to his legs /... Continue Reading →
1.I remember the promise of the mountains, the alpine summer breeze clearingour pores, the entranced look you gave me on Highway 14Remember the chip factory next to the hotel? That’s where you would’vetransferred You said all I needed to do was find a job2.I remember our first lunch, spaghetti and meatballs There was somethingpassed in... Continue Reading →
While death and taxes may have earned their spot at the top, there may be room for an addition to the dubious list of “things that are certain.” Every campaign season, candidates from both sides of the aisle in red states and blue states agree on one thing: the American...
I’d read once that Salinas, the surname that graces every form of my identity,was born in the salt mines of old Spain, where many men surely perished. Myuncle Henry, though I’d call him tio, was a Salinas if there ever was one, thesalt so strong in his blood, you could almost taste it when the... Continue Reading →
Please take a stand for your red, white, and blue. Take a stand for the land ofthe greatest, land of the honest, land of the cherished liberty. Freedom for alland above all. Freedom for my sisters and brothers. Freedom to write on thispaper and freedom to stand outside the beloved White House, chanting withsigns in... Continue Reading →
She told me that she, too, had a gardenHere, in the city, and asked if I would like to see it?“Yes, where is it?,” I asked, confused.“In Defiance,” she answered,taking my hand, as I followed.She pointed out a little tuft of grass in the crack of an asphalt parking lot.Next, she showed me a strawberry plant growing between... Continue Reading →
As I approach 40, I realize that I have only two significant things to recommend me as a human being. One is an unusually high credit score. The other is being astoundingly fertile. The high credit score came by way of a confluence of inexplicable events. Or at least I...
