Wythe County, VA, 1985 The rifle is heavy and hard in my arms, the butt jammed up into my right shoulder, just like Lee showed me. Peering down the nose of the gun, I can see the line of targets—coffee […]
Your Leaving
I don’t remember your leaving. I remember your coming home—the argument I had with your parents, the bubble I felt around myself while among joyful families, the Shoney’s breakfast we shared before coming home to have sex on the kitchen […]
Clean Slates
Once a year or so, I drive my 2006 Prius out to the county to have it detailed. It’s a ridiculous amount of money to spend on washing a car, especially this one. The back passenger door panel is a […]
Scars of War: Watching “Battle of the Sexes”
Battle of the Sexes should come with a trigger warning for us oldish dykes who watched women’s tennis in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s in order to catch glimpses of women who might be, well, you know. Sure, the film has […]
A Proof for Truth
Mathematics is considered the model of black-and-white truth—the universal language of the world. But this is a myth. I once taught Euclidean geometry, the most basic of all theoretical mathematics, to high school students. This geometry is based on a […]
The Semi-Free State
It was Oct. 28—adoption day—and Courtroom 2 of the Baltimore City Circuit Court was packed. Well-dressed parents and children squeezed into the hard wooden benches like churchgoers on Christmas Eve. Babies cried and young children squirmed on their parents’ laps. Adolescents […]
Zoe Has Two Mommies
“Mommy and Mama! Look at me!” Heads whip around the playground as Zoe calls out to me and my partner, Gina. I notice some of the adults nearby looking quizzically at her–and then at us. Our daughter, an articulate and […]