Of course I loved him at first; when he looked at me, his eyes were full of begging. But later, when he’d roll onto me at night, touching me so companionably, like I was a question already asked and answered — then I began to count the days till winter.
He’d shown me what to […]

I loved you the way a woman loves an alien that crashes in her yard. At first the alien is frightening in its unfamiliarity, but soon there comes a period of mystified joy. The woman is amazed that there can exist a body so unlike hers. She can even sleep on top […]

The day after Raphy’s mother died I took him to the woods behind my house. He followed like a child. We were fourteen; that morning, I had swabbed my mother’s perfume up both sides of my neck, in each armpit, and on the insides of my thighs. Years of longing were coiled in my belly. […]