“LSD is known to induce psychosis — in people who have never used it.” — Timothy Leary* — Banning TikTok is our new mania. “The Chinese are using it to spy on us!” “Our kids are addicted to it!” …

Elijah McClain — violinist, bodyworker, animal lover, community volunteer — would have been 25-years old on February 25, 2021. McClain is the 23-year-old Black man who died after being attacked by Aurora, CO police officers who put him in a chokehold. Although he was on the ground, restrained, when EMT’s…

It’s fun! And they don’t feel used! — “I’ve decided to start sleeping with people on Medium,” I told my husband. We were sorting the laundry so he didn’t look up. “I need to get to 100 followers by New Year’s and I only have 37.” He replied, with the touching frankness one expects from a spouse: “Have…

It ain’t no binary, it’s a cloud — O, crimson ribbon in the crotch of my panties. O, red rune anointing me B, not A. O, bloody stain, sealing my destiny, burning my face with shame. Standing before the mirror, endowed with the magnificent courage of a ten year old, I push my fingers into my crack, pull out warm…

A poem seeks my stolen identity — My mother never told me to be authentic. She only told me to be kind. She lived in a world, password-free. She cursed from the heart, not for effect, and so I curse you now. Hear me, o, fraudster: Don’t siphon off my savings As if it were gas from my beat-up…

A grave jaunt through the suburbs — That pale mare, Death saunters down our street — a relentless clip clop. Her muzzle tilts up to munch a crabapple as she meanders through our suburb. Pale as nothing, Death pokes her nose in the bushes, then prances off like a neighbor in search of a cup of sugar. Sure, she’ll be…

Ode to the suit that got away — The San Francisco sun emerges from the murky dark blurring into optimist’s gray, calling me back across the world to that Devil’s Lake thrift shop, where, o, so many, many years ago, amid the overalls and old coins, frayed tarot decks and rusty thimbles, a tarnished trumpet and ink-underlined books, spines broken, I found the perfect lady’s suit — smart…

a sonnet for moments that can’t be re-lived — Struggling to breathe, Steve didn’t sound broken: “The first English title was loved by Proust — Remembrance of Things Past — beauty spoken. Why rechristen it? Now the book’s reduced. I can’t even remember the new name” “Me neither,” I agreed. “It’s prosaic,” — and that’s what our conversation became. . . Now my throat aches…

A One-Minute Play about Dianne Feinstein’s Long Political Career — CAST OF CHARACTER The Honorable Gentlewoman from California, Senator Dianne Feinstein, F, 90, coiffed & patrician, at home. DIANNE (To the audience.) There’s always a protester outside. (As protestor.) “Die, DiFi.” (As Dianne.) Fuck you. (To the audience.) The year I was born construction started on the Golden Gate Bridge. …