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 cans, plastic milk jugs, and Coke cans—lined up like birds on a fence. The air is cool and […]

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 floor. I remember the jubilant look on your face, your blue eyes glowing, like lasers, over cheeks burned […]

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 slightly different color than the rest, and rust spots are beginning to speckle the roof. The floor mats […]

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 some groan-inducing lines (most of which are delivered by Alan Cummings) but there is also gut-wrenching anguish in […]

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 plane—a two-dimensional figure that stretches infinitely in two directions but has no thickness. Planes do not exist in […]

“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 boisterous 3-year-old, is oblivious to the scrutiny. All she wants is to show us how high she’s soaring […]