It is a Saturday, and the sweltering Nigerian sun seems to have a point to prove, or a vendetta. I walk toward…
The VCR The day has come. Mama and Papa brung the box in the house. Me and Yannie are upstairs listening to…
“You were ashes.” As I stood in the doorway of my sister Everette’s bedroom just past midnight, tears were warm and sticky…
I grew up in the heart of the Midwest during the 1970s, the era of peace, love, Vietnam War protests and what…
I don’t like the gloves the nurses leave here. They’re rubber and have powder on the inside. The powder cakes up when…
For seven days straight, I’d dreamed of snapping green beans at my Nana’s feet, on the floor in the dining room, up…
My favorite book as a child was The People Could Fly. I stared with fascination at the illustrations of people with backs…
Ukwangala kwachila ulupwa. Friendship surpasses family. Bemba proverb My sister came to me a few months after I turned two, right in…
“Wòch nan dlo pa konnen doulè wòch nan solèy.” The rock in the water cannot know the pain of the rock in…
Grandma. I always just referred to her as that without any qualifiers. I said Grandma Sarah whenever I referenced my paternal grandmother.…
2011. The first boy I ever loved had dimples in both cheeks, a passion for basketball, and a smile that could melt…
Sean is not you. Sean doesn’t drag me from bed at three in the morning, mouth pasty, eyes red, to marvel from…
Jesse arrives home an hour late. The humidity grips him as he climbs the four floors to his apartment. He remembers when…
The tap is leaking. I know this is not the first words I should say to you. ‘The tap is leaking’ is…
“If y’all weren’t so difficult, maybe it’ll be easier to get a man.” “Y‘all? Difficult?” I repeat the triggering words as if…