He Leaves Instructions on the Whiteboard: Systems of Linear Inequalities
Name the problem what it is.
When you approach the work,
it is normal to feel frustrated,
see only the signs
for less or greater than...
The Inner Nobles
A good education is more important than anything, at least that’s what my family believed, although it’s a little curious why we thought...
Eighteen Minutes in 1977
0:00-2:00
The first thing we see, in that blurred mud-and-algae color palette of so much film stock from the 1970s, is a boy in the...
A Pair of Ears
She was actually excited to be at school that Monday, until Marcus, or whatever his name was, plucked the pair of ears off her head...
Darker Than Milk
“Get your hands off of that fucking deer, Charlie!” Warren called out to his soft-headed son from their trailer.
Charlie had indeed...
Ebédre
Time is kicking me anxiously
Tripping me up as if it hated me.
So I asked mother the other day
What is this woundless
Yet such alive...
Narratives
In response to Francisco de Goya’s The Third of May 1808.
I leave my sweater on the metal hook
and walk into the bedroom where he waits...
Word Tampering
Celibate (n.) Yesterday my-old grandmother asked if my homie had a girlfriend. I said not right now. She said I know he is not sitting up...
The Master Hider
I’ll either have to live out the rest of my teens, or I’ll be the statistic for another fucked-up government education.
Lucas is on the...
Saul on The Road
When the snoring begins, Mr Liang tiptoes out of the bedroom. By the corridor, he begins his silent incantations. I’m floating. Light as...
Please, Pour Your Anger Down On Us
I don’t have to tell you about Childish Gambino singing “This is America,” do I? I don’t. But have you heard Gary Clarke Jr. when he lets...
from The Lisa Sequence
Lisa Montgomery was born with permanent brain damage from her mother’s alcoholism while pregnant, was repeatedly raped and beaten by her...
Rag Protest, 1985
One of the first documented direct actions for AIDS activism was against the New York Post and its columnist Ray Kerrison, who wrote of...
Visiting Day at Huntersville Prison
You sit on the yard with your nana,
under striped patio umbrellas.
In her best dress, and a regal hat,
she arrives straight from the...
Panaetius
she had learned that if she beheld him as if in a sphere suspended in the middle of where only she could touch him he would always...
You will live long enough
Did you seek the kingdom? Will the kingdom come? the idea of it here—breaks like the hand caught in the door
—that quick unburdening to...
The BART Ride to Berkeley
Will saw the boy from the smoking lounge. He was across the street, huddled in the doorway of the closed dry cleaners. The boy hugged...
The Hammer
The best thing that could be said about Lieutenant Colonel Conrad’s boxing matches is that he never invited the enlisted soldiers to...
I Want to Sing Every Time You Leave
I want to sing every time you leave. The station is full of irrelevant people. The lights in the market are noisy. The evening wind blows...