The Trees

The Trees

Granny C always looked a little sad. And why not? Wheat was her son. Charlene hated the woman nearly as much as she hated Wheat, but never showed it; she was an old woman, and in the South you respect your elders. Her four grandchildren, three years to ten, looked...
The Sellout

The Sellout

“White babes don’t do nothing for me. You know that.” “Bullshit, your fucking hard-on woke me up.” “Aversion therapy.” “What’s that?” I balked at telling her about my father locking my head into the tachistoscope and for three hours flashing split-second images of the...
We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies

We Measure The Earth With Our Bodies

Ama was an oracle. The realization came to my mother late in life, when her monthly bleedings stopped and something else opened inside. Some in our village called it an affliction. They said there was a crack in her mind that left her open to spirits who would consume...
Erasure

Erasure

“Where you think you goin’,” Lois bark at her. Penelope laugh it off just as cool as shit. “I’m going to have young Mister—.” She stop and look at me. “What’s your name?” “Van Go.” “That’s right,” she say. “I’m going to have Van here drive me down the hill for a...
The Sellout

The Sellout

“Did you get anything good for your birthday?” Hominy pointed to the blue-and-white cigarette-box-sized signs stickered under the windows that lined the front third of the bus. PRIORITY SEATING FOR SENIORS, DISABLED, AND WHITES Personas Mayores, Incapacitadas y Güeros...
Impatience of the Heart

Impatience of the Heart

I cannot describe my state of mind as I stood outside the house. Behind the lighted windows the music died away; no doubt the musicians were merely breaking off for an interval, but in my guilty and overwrought state I feverishly imagined that it was because of me...