I shake. I constantly shake. My feet shake
and hands shake even when I’m not doing
a handshake and my teeth shake and jaw
shakes and my fingers shake when I’m
holding a milkshake and when I’m notholding a milkshake and when my girl-
friend Huilin holds me I ask her if she
feels me… Read more

We say love in front of the TV, whisper sex in the bedroom & mean sleep, long sleep, slow sleep, tired like gods at a distance juggling parts of a better-left-forgotten universe. You don’t like the word “old,” & “middle-aged” sounds humdrum like we’ve settled into a marriage when what we want is serenity. You have my full attention, such as it is—a fleeting peek at a heron’s backside launching from reeds into milky absence. Is aging a glue strip on which to settle before dying? Put on your party… Read more

The woman in the red coat will become his mother-in-law, but Alex doesn’t know that. He is eight years old. He is an invading army. He is a grinding machine chewing the olive brown village down to mush, toppling the peace that suffocates the playground, the contentment of leaves curling from trees, mothers and nannies snuggled into fur-topped boots and wrapped in printed scarves.

The stick that Alex has found by the trashcan is hard and unpliable, like him. Its shaft is uniform and unnatural. The stick belongs… Read more