Tarnished

I like my heroes dirty. Just imagine how insufferable Christ would have been if he hadn’t hung out with hookers and tax agents. Prometheus chained to a rock for sneaking fire to mortals. Lyra abandoning her daemon Pan at the riverbank in the… Read more

Purify

When I was a sophomore in high school, I watched Gone with the Wind three times in a row, and cried myself stupid. The first time I heard The Cure’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, the summer after 7th grade, it was all I… Read more

Recovery

Even eating a brownie, across the table from me, he’s not OK.

“Do you want to tell me?” I ask.

“I can’t say,” he says.

“How’s the brownie?”

“I like it,” he says.

“Do you know about reputation?”

He shakes his head. “What is it?”… Read more

My Henry James Tour

We were alone in the hostel dorm room when the Egyptian boy put his hand down my pants.  “No,” I said. And he slapped me.  The fury I unleashed was fucking seismic.  He stepped backwards with his hands raised, palms up.  Appomattox.  Oh, look, a… Read more