Stories.
I wanna tell him my heart is breaking at the news of another Black boy murdered by accident. I wanna tell him how I'm shocked that my friend's six-year-old daughter was told by a classmate that she can't play with a white doll because her skin is black. I wanna tell him how I’m shaking reading comments— "They had it coming!” “They did it to themselves!” “They should've known better!” “I would’ve shot them myself!”
Unpublished, 2024.
That’s Hilarious
It was the Summer of 2004. Phones were free after 9 p.m. Texts were strung together using nine keys. Dial-up internet was the only link between rural New Jersey and the outside world. And, like so many boys of a certain persuasion, Internet chatrooms had evolved from a pastime to a lifeline.
Unpublished, 2024.
Toys in the Closet
The Half-Life of Sam Clinton
Sam was five when we met. A bushel of white curls with piercing black eyes peered out at me from the caged crate. Little did I know, in four short years, Sam Clinton would change my understanding of life, death, and love—forever.
Originally published in Image & Idiom, 2021.