Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider,

I grabbed her to keep her from shoving him over on hisface, again, and when I had her wristin my grasp I compressed it, fiercely, for a coupleof seconds, to make an impression on her,to hurt her, our beloved firstborn, I even almostsavored the stinging sensation of the squeezing,the expression, into her, of my anger,‘Never,…

savages. You come in with a bag,hold it out to me in silence.I know Moo Shu Pork when I smell itand understand the message: I havepleased you greatly last night. We sitquietly, side by side, to eat,the long pancakes dangling and spilling,fragrant sauce dripping out,and glance at each other askance, wordless,the corners of our eyes…

Maybe in a year I could write something.There is something in me maybe somedayto be written; now it is folded, and folded,and folded, like a note in school. And in my dreamsomeone was playing jacks, and in the air there was ahuge, thrown, tilted jackon fire. And when I woke up, I found myselfcounting the…

Now I come to look at lovein a new way, now that I know I’m notstanding in its light. I want to ask myalmost-no-longer husband what it’s like to notlove, but he does not want to talk about it,he wants a stillness at the end of it.And sometimes I feel as if, already,I am not…

onto the stretcher, tried to close themouth, closed the eyes, tied thearms to the sides, moved a caughtstrand of hair, as if it mattered,saw the shape of her breasts, flattened bygravity, under the sheetcarried her, as if it were she,down the steps.These men were never the same. They went outafterwards, as they always did,for a…

I mutter, ‘I feel like a killer.’ ‘I’mthe killer’—taking my wrist-he says,holding it. He is sitting on the couch,the worn indigo chintz around him,rich as a night tide, with jellies,I am sitting on the floor. I look up at himas if within some chamber of matednesssome dust I carry around me. Tonight,to breathe its Magellanic…