Remembering the Forgotten: The Space that Remains
Burying the Masses
On September 13th 2018, I stood in the county cemetery in my hometown of Fresno, California. It swam with more sheriff’s employees...
A Final Wave
The old cassette tapes I find stuffed away in the back of a desk drawer have nothing to do with musical tastes from years...
Dependency Ballad
It is the morning of my nineteenth birthday when, after Sara treats me to steamed eggs and crème fraîche at a French restaurant in...
Fire in the Bones. Acts of Love in Dark Times.
In A Love Letter to America, Yuri Bezmenov, alias Tomas David Schuman, argues that “in the final stage of Communist aggression, military confrontation has...
In Defense of Trans Childhood
My childhood feels distant, far more distant than the number of years that span my lifetime. It belongs to another person, one I tried...
A Birder’s Eye
Out birding together, my mother and I would drop into a silent, side-by-side communion of awe, amazed that the world could reward this simple...
Elf Acceptance?
“Why don’t you write about hearing laws?” my wife Kendra suggested recently.
Was she thinking more about laws governing public hearings or criminal proceedings, I...
Swimming Lessons
I’m standing atop a diving board, my hand firmly clamped on a metal railing. The water’s surface sparkles in the late afternoon sun. My...
Corona(His/Her)Stories
A “war” implies an enemy, a conflict, a battlefield. Renegotiating collective life, foregoing individual freedom. Redrawing the boundaries of the self. Borders and walls....
El Rincón de Recuerdo
My mother is forever missing from her girlhood.
I no longer have pictures of her as a child or very young woman in Cuba, and...
Poor Margins
Bodies have narratives that can be revised. Souls, it is hard to say.
The original narrative goes like this: This is endometrial cancer. It looks...
It All Started in Zanzibar
Author's Note: Certain names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.
A fanciful ink drawing of the world hangs on the wall...