Hayden and the Forgotten Siren
In the small Florida county where I teach evening classes, they test the tornado siren nightly...
Nonfiction
A Synthesis of Homeground
The mangrove tree is not the Florida State Tree. If I believed in statehood, I would put in a petition...
Indie Night at the Goth Club
How many times can we put on a costume until it is no longer a costume?
Going Home: Gone Home, Found Family, and Pulse
They had changed enormously in the time I’d been gone. They’d endured an enormous loss without me. They had mourned without me. They had come together to heal - memorials, tributes, fundraisers, vigils, community service drives - all without me.
Mi Papa, Mi Cuerpo
As the burning sensation in my stomach became an addiction, days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. I felt empowered by my starvation.
Schnozzle
I was so innocent that my first thought was he didn’t know he was exposed. But the way he was staring at me so fixedly soon made me realize it was on purpose.
Lonely Boy Fights
The ending to my story in Orlando flickers. I thought I knew how the story would end when I first set out to write this series. The scene would be framed at the Orlando International Airport...
Lonely Boy Dates
If I like her and she likes me, we run the gauntlet: Wally’s, Lil Indies, Tako Cheena, and then a fifty percent chance of never seeing each other again...
Lonely Boy Dances
At Lil Indies, a hipster bar, it doesn’t seem like many people are getting into the music. People pause conversation and look at the empty dance floor like someone left on the TV. So I decide to get wasted out of my mind until I believe in myself...
Lonely Boy Grocery Shops
I’m too lazy to walk the 1.5 miles to Publix, so I hail a Lyft and sit on the apartment complex stairs with my chin in my palm, thinking about a Buddhist koan...