It had stopped raining hours ago, but the air was still heavy with it, the pavement slick beneath their feet. The world moved patiently around them. Harvey shoved his hands deeper into his pockets, though the chill he felt had nothing to do with the cold.

Beside him, Will walked just a little too far away, his jaw tight, eyes fixed straight ahead.

This uncomfortable silence had been haunting the...

I bury my sorrow in a hole I cut

into your side,

just above the bone.

I bury it like a secret

I don’t want you to know,

but to feel—

to translate into

something with teeth.

You know where all

the emptiness is.

You know how to cradle

the sun and all its

citrus heat.

I want it all—the sour

and the sweet,

the hot and the cold.

I want to do what I feel

and also what I’m told.

You want it all—

life ...

Something’s wrong with Papa. The doctors at the hospital said so. It’s cancer or something. We all crowded into the tiny room, holding his hand, while men in white suits waited by the door with papers.

Mama signed for me since I was too young. I didn’t need to read the papers to know what they meant. They meant we were allowed to cry now.

But I didn’t want to.

I tried telling Mama as she sobbed...

He says he’s tired,

but his mind won’t let him rest.

He buried his pet goldfish

and prayed to the God-damned sun.

He mistook “stop” for “go,”

so now he’s on the run.

He is foolish,

built of laughter and fear.

He wants to die,

but he also wants a beer.

I love him—

his stupid smoke

and tears.

I love him,

and I’ll wait

a few more years.

I’ll redraw the horizon,

brush it in cocoa and honey.

I’ll i...

A boy trying to learn calculus

meets a boy trying to learn

the way of the wind.

Both stand toe-to-edge

on a building nobody built

and try to learn how to fall.

_Listen to the sound_

_the earth makes_

_when it knows someone_

_is about to die._

__

_Listen, quietly._

_Can you hear it?_

__

_Can you try?_

A year from now,

the boy still won’t have learned calculus.

Instead, he will worry about forgett...

It’s your tears that keep the flowers

near my grave alive.

A new one is born each time you cry.

I envy all your _no’s_ and _why’s_.

I envy the dead bird that flies.

Please stop grieving me.

I did not die for your sympathy.

Allow me to be dead for once—

finally.

Did you know there are numbers

after three?

I thought nothing existed past

what I couldn’t see.

I thought that when God willed it,

it co...

I am drowning in unfound languages,

in the Morse code you left on my skin

the last time you touched me.

Once, in sixth grade, I knew a boy

who created honey.

He asked me—if the world wasn’t ending,

what could all this color possibly mean?

I was afraid and naive, so I told him

it meant we are only as real as our dreams.

That night, he dreamt a storm,

and then the peace.

I felt him asking for hel...

The pigeons are crying again.

Louder at night. Always at night.

Like they’re right at my window, their black eyes watching. I pull the covers over my head, waiting for silence. But then—

God calls my name.

Lightning. A flicker through the dark. And He is there.

He speaks of the Devil. Of his plans. Hell, He says. The world will turn into Hell. But the pigeons are still crying, and His voice s...

I am lying in the backseat of your car,

the taste of mold stuck to the roof of my mouth.

You drop your cigarette out the window

and say something about miracles.

You think I’m asleep.

A year later, you still think I’m asleep.

I dream of your hands in places they shouldn’t be—

like in my own.

When I was younger, I learned

not to cry over what I couldn’t fix,

to just fix what I could.

But I can’t ...

I kiss your fist, unclenched.

We are lying on your bed,

scrolling through Pinterest.

I have a secret to tell you.

I whisper it into your hair.

_Once, God said heaven_

_was built for me._

_I only believed Him_

_because I feared the dead._

If I had loved you three years earlier,

I might have understood.

Back then, things happened for a reason,

and strawberries tasted like strawberries

because that...