Failed Secrets
There is no one to whom I can tell this story, Mami. It’s sealed tight, cauterized with thick keloid skin, smooth and impenetrable. So, I tell it, filling in all the blanks, going back to the brief, blessed time when love, trust and safety is the kind embrace of a doting father. […]

The Breathing Place
We’re stuck. Again. In the Kalahari Desert. No one wants to get out and push after the incident with the hitchhiking snake the other day, especially as the sun slides into the sand and the first bats of the night flit across the beam from our one remaining headlight.
“Shit!” Paul says as he […]

Accepting Impermanence
Strapped to the woman’s back — head bobbing slightly to one side, peacefully dozing in the sun and the shade of the canyon, and the soft rush of water as it pours down the rocky creek bed — is a child. A child with dark eyes that round with wonder so often at […]

An Unspoken Life
The child in the photograph is about four years old. She is not chubby, but there is a sturdiness in her arms and legs, and in the set of her shoulders. The girl sits stiffly on a cushion with her left knee bent and that leg tucked primly under the other. The toe […]