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Mental Health
Fiction
Blooming
You can hardly remember now how you would pull out the ribbons she weaved through your hair, launching them into the wind as you pedaled faster on your bike. You have left that girl behind. You believe in the power of ribbons and roses now. You are a woman.
October 2020
Essays, Memoirs & True Stories
Missing Ghosts
My father tells me about the ghosts. He tells me about lying on his stomach in a trench and falling asleep and hearing the voice of a friend who had just been killed shouting, “Brina, look out!”
September 2020
Poetry
Staccato
I’m trying to work at this coffee shop / while a young woman with blue hair / and chiseled biceps, two tables away, / holds forth about how no one / should ever take medication / for anxiety and depression
March 2020Poetry
Swimming Lessons
late into california’s indian summer you climb / onto your father’s back wrap your arms around his neck / and slide into the depths of your grandmother’s / pool
February 2020Essays, Memoirs & True Stories
Pistol In A Drawer
Ever since I first slipped it into my duffel bag those many years ago, I have guarded the pistol jealously, like a miser his coin. The more cause someone might have to take the pistol from me, the more care I have taken to conceal it.
December 2019
Essays, Memoirs & True Stories
The Way Home
Jessica and I periodically take walks together. Her small dog, Ortiz, sometimes joins us. He spends his days eating shoes, peeing on the carpet, and jumping the backyard fence. But no matter where we go, I notice that he always knows the way home.
July 2019
Essays, Memoirs & True Stories
The Routine
I take the test, grade myself strictly, and add up the points. The result is that I’m likely an alcoholic and should seek treatment as soon as possible. I take the test again and grade myself more forgivingly, because forgiveness is a virtue.
April 2019
Photography
Guests
For the past two years Doug Winter has been photographing and interviewing people at Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento, California. The charity’s mission is to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, but it also tries to meet less tangible needs for “love, acceptance, respect, and friendship.”
April 2019
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