Humanity: Raw & Unfiltered
I learned I was a black market baby when I was 14. There was no legal adoption, and it’s still unclear if money had changed hands. The parents who took possession of me changed my identity and pretended to be my biological parents. The deception was deliberate and deep. It Read more
My mom desires a closeness with me now that she never did when I was young. I’d long suspected my mother didn’t embrace parenting in that fervent, born-for-this way that some of us do. Still, I was stunned the day she actually confirmed just how trapped she’d felt in the Read more
I’m your mother, but no I’m not listening. You’re talking in the backseat of the car. I hear you, barely. I’m your mother. You say my name “Mom? Mom!” I can’t really hear you, not really. But I will always be your mother. You’re talking more in the backseat of Read more
As with most pregnant teens during the “love generation,” I was told that the right thing to do was to relinquish my baby to a good home after he was born. Seventeen-year-old girls don’t make good mothers—or so they said. But I was a good girl. I did what I Read more
For all those who died before their time, and to their families. i. I don’t know you but as I rushed from the bus to the station there was an unsettling emptiness and that’s when I noticed the tape and the tent – there was so much blood. You flowed Read more
“Call her.” Bo steers their late model Buick into the dirt driveway with one hand and flicks her Camel out the window with the other hand. “Regina worshiped President Kennedy. She won’t refuse a call today. Someone dies, you want a phone call.” It’s Bo’s week to chauffeur herself and Read more
I am seeking a confidant, a loser like me. My pre-requisites are simple. I desire a lack of ambition. I am looking for self-loathing. This depressant-applicant should come pre-equipped with a heart that is worn and long faded away like a hundred shipwrecks. His or her life shall be in Read more
Well, this is absolutely going to ruin my love of all things lemon, I thought as I held a lemon swab in my mom’s mouth for her. This seemingly benign, care-taking piece of her cancer meds pack. Fresh, sweet lemon scented the air for a moment, but for once in Read more