​I heard you
as you turned from the subway station to the small park
and onto our street,
            singing.
Or maybe my heart heard you,
the connection we had to each other pinged just a little,
so that the part of me tuned in to you caught my attention
for a small second
as you entered our street,
turned right,
and began your last block home,
for I don’t think you would dare to sing so loudly
in the middle of the afternoon
that I could hear you at the end of the block,

it seemed like a good idea
at the time
cross the street, to avoid conversation
after all, I was in a hurry
morning rush, winter schedule

it seemed like a good idea at the time
to wait, wait for another
convenient moment

adjusting her burgundy scarf
she turns at the familiar corner
pausing for the light to change

fogged window, frozen smile
still burning in my memory
from the other side

if I could only reverse
the grey heaviness of that morning
but that is not how time works

“I’ve always hated this song. It teaches kids to tease someone for being different, until they somehow prove themselves worthy.”

Claire stared at the traffic light. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer reached its climactic conclusion. The voice of an over-excited DJ once again clamoured through the speakers.

“Don’t you think?”

​The light turned green, and Mike accelerated ​into the cloud of exhaust from the car ahead.​

​Hard hungry growling pain
flecked with the spittle of grief.
​The tide recedes and then recedes again.
 
Those eyes once soft and round
vacant and empty, staring.
Are there any memories to be found?                
 
Small girls, sharing school day
secrets. Forever friends you said
as we hid under coats in dark hallways.
 
Ah the thrill of the chase,
red haired boys in low slung cars.
Laughing, running from their sweaty embrace.
 
Pregnant bellies swollen,
we drink gin and laugh again,
feet up in the bar of The Malmaison.
 
Green glass smoothed by the sea,
cold and hard in my pocket.
The tide recedes and then returns to me.

It was two weeks before Halloween when Mom packed up her things and walked out the door. She hadn’t even finished making my costume. I was going to be Batman. Not the blue and gray suit one from the comics, but the one all in black from the movies. It would have made every kid at school jealous, but with Mom gone, Halloween took on an entirely new context. Word had gotten around that she was sleeping with Tom, the lawyer down the street.
​
Dad channeled his anger into the spirit of the season by proceeding to decorate the house and front lawn with witches, demons, and ghouls, replacing their comical, spooky smiles with photos of Mom's face.  

County Chronicle – 10 September 2022

Developer’s Dream Turns Nightmare for New Residents

​​A devastating hurricane buffetted the north Florida coast late Thursday. The category three storm hit the Tres Chanchitos development with winds of up to 115 miles per hour. Two houses on Wolf Circle were leveled in the disaster, leaving only one show home intact.

A bungalow touted as the latest in