A head overfilled of pollution; of the world crumbling below one’s feet, smog cutting ties in every waking breath– that could very well be one’s last. Two a.m. alarms sound a countdown to adulting, to long-houred shifts where life is forever missed. Beating around the bush for college applications, internships, tours; yet shattered by the…
my dad always wanted to be his dad but he wasn’t supposed to be his dad, who rummaged through scrap piles, exposing himself to unknown toxins that would spread throughout his body killing him halfway through his fifties my dad works nights as a glorified McAfee program for the Army my dad, though, was never…
this body unrecognizable hands feel the familiar itch of crabgrass 3 layers deep the lungs remember sediment so meticulous woven into each gust and breath I cannot seem to recognize the face bred for beauty with hair butchered by familial fabric shears yet through the warped inconsistent tangible alteration these eyes remain the same craving…
The smoky midwest sky falls apart mid morning. You’re trying to fill your lungs with clouds. The second time in two days you force a twenty minute drive across a foreign town to medicate- Is Illinois considered the Midwest? This edible has gone to your head. A radio man chimes in, rants about the death…
The pit of stomach downwardness was a daily ritual. Sense and sense alone were all, spare the few grilled chicken wraps and smoothies. It was the one-month anniversary of silence—my doing. Not cast aside, but a noiseless retreat, staring down a threshold of pain that could no longer be smiled through, shopped through, hungover through.…