“Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.” –William Ellery Channing Rainfall is my go-to means of escape. Perhaps God…
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If I walked to the window in the kitchen, the little one right above the creaky sink, I could look out over the backyard of my mother’s grandmother’s house. I gazed out, watching the hill gently slope beyond the fruit…
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I am embarrassed to admit that I loved Levittown even when it didn’t love me. It was my first home, and like my first love, embedded while my…
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I can’t remember ever not wanting to be a mother. The lullaby to first tuck itself into my memory was Rock-a-Bye Baby. I might’ve heard it from my…
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“Wòch nan dlo pa konnen doulè wòch nan solèy.” The rock in the water cannot know the pain of the rock in the sun. – Haitian Proverb I…
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The first time she noticed, it was purely accidental. A quick glance while reaching for a towel on the nearby rack. The pleasant burn from…
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It was a bitterly cold November evening, fifteen minutes or so before closing when the young man first walked into Tia Adelina’s botanica. He was…
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They were floating, flying in tandem, punctuated by the last of the year’s sunlight, perfectly together. Nothing could separate them. The voices of children, the…
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At the produce markets that populated Church Avenue, if someone cut in line or pushed her while trying to squeeze past, my mother would hurl…
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The tap is leaking. I know this is not the first words I should say to you. ‘The tap is leaking’ is not a conversation…
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I need to remind myself that Mama is human, that she is not endless love, and food, and sacrifice. But she makes it hard to…
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My mother’s eyes are bulging, glassy and wild, almost spinning in their sockets with fear. Her cracked lips are pulled back from her teeth, which…
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