saevuswinds

 We folks have been living in West Virginia our whole lives. I remembered my brothers and I driving too fast in cars and motorcycles. We’d use to race each other to the springs and then search for fairy stones. Our family still worked in the mountains. Then things were changin’, and we couldn’t drive no more. The other folk, they looked down on coal. They watched the black snakes slither out of our chimneys. Sometimes the police comes and they told us the world’s dying and we can’t be doing this no more. But in winter, we felt safe. No police would come to the coal mines then. There’s ice on steep roads. Th

i called her hot chilli peppers because i believed she could breathe fire and singe my homework with her long red nails. now a decade later i wonder if it was her illness that made her retire and not the plague of prayers upset students sent her over all those years. i wonder if she will remember the year her homeroom was vandalised or how she taunted me in the corner of a classroom. i am not brave enough to ask if those losing memories lose it backwards or if it all goes and snippets stay. i hope she loses the things that made her so callous and remembers me as the girl who smiled on the first day of class raised my hand and asked her what

the smell of oranges reminds me of my sister digging her thumb into its flesh eyes wild with excitement as she sees she can peel its skin and that it is sweet and slightly sour and she is proud her small hands reap rewards as i too smile it is wonderful how food reminds you of what love and life is as i reach for my own and peel it much more elegantly i tell my sister it is all about experience as i am older and i do not tell her if the orange will grow more sour or sweet or that there are other oranges like clementines or kumquats for now we sit by the table and breathe

Maybe the reason I wonder if I’m different is because no one ever stays the same. Sure, Heather’s still popular and she’s still dating Oakleaf’s version of Tom Brady, but one of these days David’s going to get fat and Heather’s going to turn in her pom poms for a baby stroller. Sometimes, I wonder if I will ever replace something all encompassing for a new identity. When my mother got married, she cut her hair and told me she didn’t need the hassle anymore. I couldn’t imagine giving up books, but then again, David probably can’t imagine a life without football either. This afternoon, I w

Dear William, when you warned people with that runaway star, no one noticed. Part of you died when you hurdled towards the Earth. In wartime, everyone loses part of themselves. My father fought for the next great war until his legs gave out. I don’t know if he ever killed someone, but I imagine a field of corpses and the smell of defecation would at least change a person. He never mentions it, except late at night, when we both look at the sky and watch you. He knew which way to go when fighting because he’d watch your stars and you’d keep him from danger. I’ll never forget that. His face was battered and grateful when

For fourteen minutes, I had let the world know I was a dancer. Everyone in my town had been told to come to the grand exhibition hall. I imagined them descending down to the building’s entrance. I wanted to see their faces as they sat down on carpeted seats and waited for the showcase to start. Outside the announcements played and encouraged people to their seats. The whole world was watching us, someone whispered to me. They’ve got us streaming online. Only the most gifted women were allowed to be in the showcase and I was the youngest there. We wore makeup and dressed in vibrant colors. Somewhere my parents were watching. They&

It’s been raining since Saturday and the water has started pooling where the blood used to be. Cassius tells me that at the end of Baker Street, Old Mary Ann has stopped selling us uncooked meat. Out of stock, she says. Cassius won’t tell me if she was bitter, if she was smiling, or if she knows who killed her husband, but I know she resents us. Today, she handed him sausages in intestine lined packaging and told him to boil it in water if he disliked it cold. Cassius mentions we’ll have to hunt more often if no one will sell to us. I tsk. I imagine her veal being turned into prepackaged burgers, selling it cheaper just to s

i was born on soil that did not belong to me with blonde hair and blue eyes my parents held me in hammocks and almost named me malia which means those white and yellow flowers you see the natives stitching into leis for ceremonies and my family still does not know what privilege means and tell me to be proud of my heritage and tell me if we had stayed the kids would have bullied me what a strange thing to say when a beheaded queen lingers in history while tourists come marveling at dole and the military

It had been a peaceful love. The radio remained bleating while Natasha gripped Vince’s arm, huddled underneath their home. A bomb shelter. 2300. Russians approaching any moment. Nuclear weapons imminent. Remember protocol. Remember duck and cover. Remember. ______________________________________________________________________________ The Cold War was one of intimidation, or at least, that’s what Natasha believed. Twisting the rags so that it could rid itself of food stains, she continued cleaning the dishes. Vince had a career at the capitol, and every Monday, would return home with roses and intel. Telling stories of McCarthyi

The Odyssey Oh, how the ocean waves bash my ship, but seasickness is nothing when I feel the pain she left in my chest. Life pins me to the ground, beaching me on islands that only serve as distractions. Although I could have any goddess, it is the memory of her warm body against mine that allows me to fall asleep each night. So at midnight, I rise, taking a moment to spell her name in stars, and imagine that she’s curled up in the bed I made for her. She is the one who remembers me, despite admirers swarming her like wasps. In all my moments, the only time I could fall apart was in her arms. The waves may crash into me, and the journ