The other half of me lives across the world. The roots of mama and baba, agong and apo, cling to the rocks of a red clay soil, While their meristems were supplanted, relegated to the cool nectar of Coca-Cola. As I dig my forehead into the frost-bitten plane window, I imagine lines convalescing upon the…
I like the skin on chicken, and I’ve never found out if that’s weird or not. My dad thought it was weird, so he’d rip my skin off and feed it to the dogs. My mom didn’t think it was weird, but she also didn’t eat chicken. She’d just smile and watch us eat it…
I – Scratch & Whip Your father taught you how to overcome boredom by taking you to the racetrack. On those long Sunday afternoons you and your younger brother yelled at each other in the backseat of your father’s brown Hyundai. The car parked in the shadiest spot on the lot with the windows cracked…
His mind was the silent rotor that swept the swirling flakes into eddies that whirled in the grey. Not proper snowfall yet; just a precursor to it. Sarah shaking out the bolsters, or orange pith blown from the hand by a lick of breeze; little flecks, a smattering of hesitance; a laden promise. Pat knew…
“Where do you want these boxes, boss?” Alex, the young deliveryman asked. “Here, in the corner. Yes, yes, that will be fine,” Sol instructed him, gesturing towards an empty corner near the canned goods aisle. He had been that strong once, he recalled, watching Alex lift the heavy boxes with ease. And it was a…
Clerical Work After the waning, half-blue moon, behind my eye, the smokestack appears with yellow sky, a praise-song, and a tear. Remember man that you began in woman. Remember man your fetal form (once you were female too). Remember this and praise our song. Blood is Thicker Than Wine And we fight about the…
There are a lot of abandoned things on our street. The old church. The place the priests used to live. The Danish woman in the small white house. All abandoned. My favourite abandoned thing is the green car. I can see it from the loungeroom window. It’s parked across the road. It looks like a…
For Auntie Bertha give a penny, take a penny – there were mason jars gabbing by her sink – copper water soaking, disinfecting, cleansing coins of dirty fingers and stomping snow-filled boots. pennies are only lucky if found face-up on a sidewalk, staring into strangers’ eyes, begging to give good fortune. I started turning tail-up…
