the sea is in the air and the salt is in a clump. i pump the shaker with all the vigor i can muster, but the clumps release just seven grains onto my dish. i’ll have to make those crystals count.with my attention on the salty, i had let the conversation slip by, they have… Continue reading isla margarita

how could we know whether they genuinely favored us, or if we were simply useful to them? we had dinner with them more frequently than with our friends; extraordinary japanese meals where no dish was repeated: yam gelatin, pork belly, matsutake mushrooms, mackerel sashimi, fresh homemade tofu. the drinks, on the other hand, were always… Continue reading dinner downtown

Before breakfast, the coffee must be poured. Two scoops of roasted beans in the grinder, a banshee in the corner transcribes the screeching and spitting of the blades. The contents are mangled into a soft, fine powder. Cold milk would never do, in its refrigerated state it has the power to change the taste of… Continue reading Before breakfast

we’ve been trying to find out. is there really such a thing? itch that skin, sugar drop. walk like your thighs love spandex, chemical compound-laced threads smick-smacking through the tall, tall grass. what is alive and how do you wrap it around your wrist; yellow is the knot that won’t slip. it swings through, leaving… Continue reading what is yellow?

if you have the word “chaos” in your email address or username, i don’t think we’ll be acquainted. sick abed, i shouldn’t pick out the bad seeds, but just eat all the people, pop ‘em like candy. when they’re out there on the scraggly lawn eating tacos and the occasional radish, i’m wiping lily pollen… Continue reading don’t be too long, now

after the half-fiasco of the final family vacation, i feel a little lonely to be by myself again. not enough to plunge me into grief, more like dipping my toes into a shallow puddle of despair. i built myself a nice shield to repel the steady rain of negative comments from my older siblings, and… Continue reading next time

so many forgotten or never learned(i, who should hold onto words,lips tightly around them)stay with me, don’t leavei want to describe this in my native tongue

the midtown color palette is restricted to blue and whitewith the intensity of an in-flight magazine asphalt laughterdon’t-worry cleavage she’s too old for pigtails but keeps a firm grip on her email leaning out a window, comb forward and spray the thinner the heel, the less she eatsbuys another cool latte for the homeless

this is the shape i’d like to be: indented. a few spaces in from the vertical drop of line after line of conversation. whatever possessed me to think i could fight obsession with obsession, to treat things i’d rather not think about like they were my muse? positively foolish. more ever than angry. maybe there’s… Continue reading it feels like a day other than today

my arms taste salty, there’s no escaping the humid drip of a summer afternoon. what better lunch could i offer myself than a refreshing peanut butter and jelly sandwich? as a child i wanted my mother to make them for me, just like all my american friends’ moms did. in our house, as in all… Continue reading approximately american, v1