New Roommate
“Who are you?” I yelled at a woodpecker pecking a bedroom nest in my one-bedroom apartment. “Are you Alder?” the woodpecker chatters back. “Yes. This is my Oakland apartment.” “Well […]
Voiceless
“How are you, Clementine?” “—.” “Why can’t you talk?” Clementine opens her mouth to reveal a frog in her throat. “Why is there a frog in your throat?” Clementine writes […]
Birth Head
Through her delivery room screams, Luna pushed out wailing life. While my genetic shadow had two human arms and two human legs, a lettuce head sat on top of her […]
Cemetery Run
Mary runs through the open gate of Mountain View Cemetery where gravestones surround her sweat on a curved road. In Mountain View, she gapes upon a downtown skyline. […]
Oakland’s Bullet
When Oakland took their bullet for a walk, that runaway caliber pressed its width into brown skin within a multigenerational neighborhood outsiders stamp as another ghetto. Oakland took their […]
I Carry Wonder
In the night’s black crush, I carry wonder if we breathe alone within our exhale of stars. Under redshift hellos scattered across this big-hug sky, how many atmospheres […]
Look Up
On cold sand, waves smash where we stand trapped within this San Francisco cityscape. Look up. I bet our galactic road curves to an Alpha Centauri wedding smacking upon […]
The Milky Way in L.A.
Based on a true story A blackout opens city-wide eyes. In Echo Park, a man breathes panic, lost on his walk home as emergency dispatchers brew their teas […]
My Steampunked Universe
When I plop the universe down like a freshwater catch onto my kitchen counter, I shimmy in an engine piston now driving an expanding cylinder: the host to glass galaxies, […]
Back From Surgery
When butterfly stitches flap across my chest in our San Francisco bedroom, you touch fresh wings after a chrysalis of cancer got sliced out. In fourteen solar dips, […]