Dreams Old Men Dream
If I am an old man now, then I‘m also a child. My crumpled hands strain across white hospital sheets, glide across white hospital sheets, then fresh, pale, sickly. The children all around me clutch recycled stuffed animals with yearning to live. We old men talk about the war. It’s funny, the way death follows [...]
Self-Worth as a Catalyst for Change
My life began as a last resort: my mother’s final, desperate plea to escape the 80s as they crashed all around her. Noemi Mendez led the fast and dangerous lifestyle of every recreational drug addict of her era. Married and divorced at 15, she’d been using since her early teens and had three abortions before [...]
An Assault and the Four-Year-Old Witness
I was four years old when my mother and I moved into our first apartment. I thought it was luxurious and affectionately referred to it as our “sky house.” Mom was excited, too; she said she’d gotten a really good deal. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before we were put in our place and [...]
