Go boldly amid the cynics and fools, those who believe in defeat and those who only wish to see the waters rise and drown the world. Pull on your boots and cloak and take up your images and words, your creator’s heart and glorious soul; with mighty hands and divine will erect temples against ignorance…

This is not my America.
My America is a place where children can play, unsupervised, in the streets until the streetlights come on. Where they can walk or ride the bus to school without the fear of being shot by an angry person with a rifle.
My America is a place of welcoming and tolerance. My America is a place where any person fleeing oppression…

I long to feel your fingers on my flesh

tracing my storms and silence.

Gary barely managed to set his martini on the table and sit down. It didn’t make sense, he thought, for that one drink to be hitting him that hard; he worked out four times a week and ate all the kale he could stomach. Je shouldn’t be this drunk.
Across the table…

Susan was already crying inside. Fourteen men had sat
down across from her and answered her question. She’d…