Graduation day precedes final report card pick-up. The “Last Dance” at Senior Prom precedes some final melody. A roll of thunder follows a lightening strike–before the last flash of the storm. A parry during a fencing match lands before the ultimate riposte. How these penultimates eclipse the end! dogs, fish, lizards, mice … that heartbreaking…

They say you have to embrace the darkness to discover the light. They say. What do they know? I could show them darkness. The inky new moon night that encloses me like the walls of the womb. The Mese Verde tunnel, scraping my head and shoulders, through which I crawl like a babe forced through…

“One can live without having survived.” Carolyn Forche A fruit basket, delivered to a hotel room–covered in lighter fluid. A patronizing condescension during a class introduction: “one of our special people.” The abject fear with which the six-foot-something boy in a man’s body commanded. If only he had understood the old Portugese saying: “Beware the…