He called. Nineteen years later. She picked up on the second ring. Like she’d been waiting. Which maybe she had. He recited what he’d practiced. She was quiet. “I know,”…

I close my eyes and listen for your voice over the rainfall. Welcome to Artemesia Station. The next train at Platform 7A is the 4:23 PM service to Poseidon and…

You probably went freelance for the freedom. More control over your schedule. The ability to pick your clients. No limit on your earnings if you push harder or get better…

I learned from you to lure them in by radiating loneliness. To cup them gently in my hands so I wouldn’t crush their small wings. To whisper my last goodbye…

Tears soak the freshly turned earth beneath her knees. Her womb flutters gently, like the butterfly hovering over his flowers. Fresh-cut daisies, white like surrender, mark his gravestone. She wipes…

Green as the sea. Green as envy. Green as the eye of the dragon who raided Ms. Hobblefinch’s garden. She grew monstrously big greens. And would invite her friends to…

She bakes me in different sizes, adding vanilla pudding inside, warm like her heart no one sees. I’m frosty, they say, eyeing my cream cheese icing—the pudding, the interior, unseen.…

Mama’s rubbing sunscreen all over my face. “We’re at the White House,” I say. “No,” Mama says. “The Statue of Liberty, but not the real one, neither.” Lotion gets in…

Thoughts and actions begin, and go nowhere. Birds are different. A wing shifts, a body turns, and it passes through the whole flock. They take off as one, landing somewhere…

I frisbee the flattest rock into the water. The ocean roars, but you are silent, arms folded, looking away from me. Sullen because you hate the beach. I hold my…