When I was fifteen, my father told me I wasn’t allowed to panic. I wouldn’t be able to canoe down the Delaware River with him, my sister, and her boyfriend if I didn’t take an oath. This oath required that I keep my cool or miss out on what every…

Her 9th grade teacher, named for a strong wind, Ms. Gale — whose long black hair echoed her long black skirts — once said, “The book of life is lying open in front of you. How deeply are you reading it?” Danika took this to mean she must read assignments…

Blisters turned into the raw redness of frayed skin, the tingle and burn every time her brother accidentally rubbed the sorest spots that would one day become calluses, her body sucked dry, withering into leaves that wanted to fly away. Her feet barely functioned. They had become stones that inched…

He held her foot in his hands. Her bones ached, but warmth spread up her arch as his thumb dug into the muscle where it had hurt for days, since wearing flip flops while crossing the border. Now both thumbs stroked while he shook his head, closed his eyes, and…

How dark can we get? It gets pretty dark at night, even in the spotlight. Astroworld 2021 says it all: We are fast approaching 8 billion on a planet with less to give. Each of us knows, deep down, that the majority is increasingly invisible. …

In this post-lockdown era, everyone is talking about the job market in America, about all the underpaid and overstressed workers who have finally had it and thrown in their resignations. Quitting may be at an all-time high, but scamming seems to be hitting even higher marks. …

…sleeping streets, the green-to-indigo remnants of day outlining structured hedges and Spanish revival homes whose clay tile roofs hide decades of anxiety…. What is it about incandescent windows, a woman clearing the table, a man sitting in an easy chair, opening a book? What is it about the curve of an animal’s back half obscured by a low-lying fan palm? — In the city where I grew up streets ran at the speed of light like to-do lists. Straight blocks of housing threw shadows over pedestrians as they rushed into tic-tac-toe boards of pressure and purpose. That first city of my childhood rose up into the sky. But the city where…

Please read Retro Reflection: Part 1, Retro Reflection: Part 2, and Retro Reflection: Part 3 before reading this. Richard Branson’s Real Revenge True, time transforms trauma into absurdity, turning rotten luck into something laughable, but here’s what insanity looks like: I flew free of charge — a winner — to…

Before reading this, please see Retro Reflections: Part 1 and Retro Reflections: Part 2. Why is it that getting into a cop car feels like climbing into a dark cave without a flashlight? You crawl in, certain that the spiders are hanging in the corners ready to strike, and wonder…