We stayed up at night, mouths open,
Heads in our tired, wrinkled hands—
Not thinking, just listening
To stories of the seven ghosts
Who killed our fathers
And devoured our mothers.
Our hands gave way,
And sleep took us in fits and starts.
I have friends in low places—
where the landlord’s shadow
comes before payday,
and the shelves brimmed with stories,
not bread.
They are the sons of fire, stone, and tin.
Bald as old prophets. We have no memories of our first hellos...
When I tell people I'm hungry and they reach into their pockets, I laugh at myself because their impulsive generosity indicates I couldn't communicate. I don't look hungry.
I'm hungry for the newer, better version of me - the one I've been envisioning for two decades.
Betty Robinson got into a plane crash in 1931 and was mistakenly pronounced dead. She spent 7 weeks in a coma and it took her 2 years learn to walk again. 5 years later, she won a gold medal in the 1936 Olympic Games.