Sunday, December 16
Saturday, December 15
Doherty Crane
Can a town die?
After three hundred and fifty-seven years, can it just dissolve into nothing?
There are too many ghosts above and below the water here. Where will they all go? What will happen to them when we break our faith with the dead?
The meter's running. It's going to be a long night.
After three hundred and fifty-seven years, can it just dissolve into nothing?
There are too many ghosts above and below the water here. Where will they all go? What will happen to them when we break our faith with the dead?
The meter's running. It's going to be a long night.
Saturday, January 9
Darcy DeLuca
You destroyed my family, and I'm going to find you
Not like my father, who left for the mainland after the slow poisoning of his marriage
Not like my mother, who withdrew into herself and grew colder every day
No, not me. I nursed every ounce of hatred that festered in me
I let it seep into the cracks until it drowned any chance I had of happiness, relationships, a life
But I don't care
I know you're still here
And I'll stay on this rock until I find you
I don't believe in an afterlife, but I can assure you of this:
If you don't burn in hell,
I'm going to make sure that you burn down here first.
Not like my father, who left for the mainland after the slow poisoning of his marriage
Not like my mother, who withdrew into herself and grew colder every day
No, not me. I nursed every ounce of hatred that festered in me
I let it seep into the cracks until it drowned any chance I had of happiness, relationships, a life
But I don't care
I know you're still here
And I'll stay on this rock until I find you
I don't believe in an afterlife, but I can assure you of this:
If you don't burn in hell,
I'm going to make sure that you burn down here first.
Saturday, December 12
Lars Thomsen
Back when I had two legs, I would have swum to the mainland just to get off this island
But my grades were terrible, my savings nonexistent
Options were limited
So I traded the ocean for the desert and my hockey stick for a rifle
While my friends were busy pledging frats and hooking up
I was living in a tent near Fallujah with six other guys and spiders as big as fucking squirrels
I grew to hate the sun and the heat and the blinding light
The way sand clung to my lips and eyelids and got stuck in my teeth
Dodging bullets
Firing bullets
Sweating bullets
I had nine days to go when the IED took out Kolchecki, Barnes, a chunk of my face, and my legs from the knees down
I was the only one that survived
If you can call it that
I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's in the Green Zone casualty unit
Then another two months in Walter Reed
Cursing myself and everyone around me as I figured out how to walk again
The plastic surgeons did what they could with my face
Which hadn't exactly been GQ material to begin with
But the scars are still there
And so are the nightmares that leave me drenched
Days are better, though
The sun is just a suggestion here
The tides run like clockwork
People leave me alone
If anything, they avoid me
I pass my long afternoons with Crane
At least I know he's not staring at my face
He mends his nets and I strum my old guitar while the wind chimes swing back and forth
And for a while, I can forget
But my grades were terrible, my savings nonexistent
Options were limited
So I traded the ocean for the desert and my hockey stick for a rifle
While my friends were busy pledging frats and hooking up
I was living in a tent near Fallujah with six other guys and spiders as big as fucking squirrels
I grew to hate the sun and the heat and the blinding light
The way sand clung to my lips and eyelids and got stuck in my teeth
Dodging bullets
Firing bullets
Sweating bullets
I had nine days to go when the IED took out Kolchecki, Barnes, a chunk of my face, and my legs from the knees down
I was the only one that survived
If you can call it that
I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's in the Green Zone casualty unit
Then another two months in Walter Reed
Cursing myself and everyone around me as I figured out how to walk again
The plastic surgeons did what they could with my face
Which hadn't exactly been GQ material to begin with
But the scars are still there
And so are the nightmares that leave me drenched
Days are better, though
The sun is just a suggestion here
The tides run like clockwork
People leave me alone
If anything, they avoid me
I pass my long afternoons with Crane
At least I know he's not staring at my face
He mends his nets and I strum my old guitar while the wind chimes swing back and forth
And for a while, I can forget
Wednesday, November 4
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