(mac)ro(mic)

In this new house — in her new house, she guesses — Rosie doesn’t know where to look. She wants to see everyone; she wants to be seen. If Rosie can’t be seen, she wants to be felt. Honestly, Rosie prefers to be felt. She just […]

Her chubby little arms swaying as she careens down the mountain are all I can think of again this morning. The way her body’s flopped forward, and she stares at the snow passing underneath her. Her dad’s holding her up, her skis tucked between his. […]

Tonight I hope something pours out of me. The LED clouds are on, ergo ambiance, and I ate the healthy food for lunch and I got the sun and the laundry is handled.  You don’t care about that. I don’t care about that—about the things […]

I didn’t used to have to prepare myself to see him. Before the trench coat and bail bonds and scabs. Before the lies and the red-rimmed eyes, and the snot strolling toward his lips. Before the pleading for mom’s car payment and before the blue-eyed […]

We shot in one of the ramshackle, defunct rooms at the Eastland Hotel during a blizzard. As we navigated labyrinthine hallways closed to the public en route to our makeshift studio, we whispered like we were doing something illicit, despite David’s of course having obtained […]

“Nothing* could be worse than dripping taco sauce+ on her brand-new† wool‡ sweater¤.” *In her immediate current vicinity. ** +Is it even “taco sauce” if she used no ground beef, no garlic, and no onion? I think it’s just sauce. ++ †Seriously, she just removed […]

Erin plays the part of the heroine. Cast for her soft lips and full body, she throws herself into relationships with gusto. She has mastered the laugh where she pulls back her lips, bares her teeth, and squints like she’s sharing an intimate joke. Roland […]

1. If you fold down the back row of seats and let her father Tetris your boxes into an impossibly efficient arrangement, your entire life in New York can fit neatly into a standard SUV. 2. It actually takes five hours to get to DC. […]

Ten years ago, a childhood friend came out to me. He was nearly sixty and still living in Laurel, Mississippi, the small town where we both grew up. He said he had been seeing the same woman now for 20 years, unable to come to […]

I add to the festivities. I create glow because I otherwise wouldn’t return from the darkness. I don’t turn down the dial. My walkway is lined with small flags we waved on the 4th of July before the accident in August crushed everyone in the […]

Few can do it, but I’ve gotten the perfect level of drunk for karaoke. Paced myself and now I am feeling the right amount of bold, horny, irreverent, and ultimately nihilistic. I am ready.  I make eyes with the guy running the mic and he […]

Dear Josh, Today, I pulled my A&W mug down from a cabinet. There was a dead spider in it, a thick coating of dust on the rim. It’s been thirty years this spring since I stole that beveled glass mug, thirty years since I saw […]