Mama never did like the humping. She said it was dirty. So I moved the rabbits from the far part of the lawn to the kitchen, where there wasn’t any dirt. Somehow that was worse, though I don’t know how.  Mama said I never had more sense than a saltlick, which I guess is true […]

I believed in the necessity of white lies; my Aunt Maggie believed in constant truth. I believed in perception; my aunt, reality. I believed the present could be just as pleasant as the memory of the past if you had the right materialistic distractions. My aunt thought materialistic distractions unnecessary. She turned sixty-three today, my […]

Above, electric white magnesium exploded to throw up our hick town’s gang sign for boredom. The three of us — ensigns sharing sips of Boone’s Farm — piled into the car’s cabin, its sunroof a crucifix-bone. Saturday’s ennui plotted a plotless arc on which we drove past the BP and Sonic, underneath the overpass tagged […]

I pushed through the main doors and out into the cold night air, even my bones crying. Christmas just isn’t for the dying, I heard my father say. I turned and faced him on the swing seat. His eyes and cheeks were red but he was smiling. I hate watching him try to have fun, […]