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My brother stealing all the lightbulbs, my parents live without light.

My mother is queen of buttons. She shows off the prized ones.

Is anybody out there? Nobody answered, and I felt archaic as prayer.

If life was exchanged, who is to say it flowed one way?

Charlie wasn’t Lena’s first love, but he counted on being her last.

I tell my sister what I didn’t tell my father, I love you. Please, don’t die.

Ike’s voice left behind on the shore as Tina plunges in again.

My own hunger was for a reduction in the vast space between people.

My own hunger was for a reduction in the vast space between people.

It seemed to her that they only ever touched each other in transient, sudden ways.

A psychologist told me we can train our dreams. I practice each night.

A boy in a dress vanishes beneath the sound of his own galloping.

We press closer to look at a picture: a handcuffed boy leaning toward us.

The emblazoned vessel performed my false and vulgar life—I knelt to it.

“I can’t believe she’s drinking,” she said. “I just can’t believe it.”

Let him search, Tricia thought, who knew what he might discover.

God was surrounding the chair, leaves flourishing from a sickly tree.

Not all his children love themselves. Look at little Adrienne.

She only eats condiments, pickles, slices of sharp cheddar.

What will we do without exile, and a long night that stares at the water?

I never felt heart stop or skin burn, just the first split second of sound.

I feel them slice me open and tug, then I smell my own innards burning.

Your words will strike her heart like Saint Teresa’s flaming arrow.

My first true love was Underwood, my mother’s typewriter.

I will tell you about the sick. They are ruthless, they are like Attila.

I will tell you about the sick. They are ruthless, they are like Attila.

It has come to this—my daughter is now assaulting other children.

If you hear your name again just say, Here I am. Maybe it’s the Lord.