KNOWING For years he had studied the imagery, tropes, and stylistics of contemporary English literature. It began in junior high as he listened to passages from To Kill a Mockingbird while staring at the stockinged legs of his English teacher, Ms. Winston, swinging back and forth in a casual way. From then on he knew [...]

THE SUMMER IN THE CITY The summer in the city was unconscionably warm, but never hot like the deserts and valleys to which I was accustomed, never scorching, just sinuating itself into my pores. After stepping out of the shower I immediately felt like taking another shower. If I could have lifted the shower wholesale [...]

SHE, SAVAGE You said you were a savage and then you dressed in skins hewn from men whom you did not entirely dislike. You sewed sequins onto them attached silken ribbons and paste gems then personated the pirouette down that hallway made from gold. And there was such a row of lights: I wondered if [...]

VALUATIONS Fitzgerald valued her calves at five hundred dollars per. Accounting for inflation they may or may not be worth six thousand dollars each. I counted out the bills a twenty at a time, crisp and unmolested but for the dust from fingertips. Hers or mine? I ought to know.