Ah, I suppose, you who are reading this, are wondering why this is titled “Brains”. That’s quite easy to explain, for I wish to speak to you about that squishy muscle in your head.

Brains determine a person; brains keep and store the memories of people. Sometimes they even throw them out.

Brains, for some reason even though they are important to keeping our hearts beating, are very delicate and ...

Hey, there. Yeah you, you little idiot. The one reading this stupid book. Listen up, you little eejit and listen well…

…you deserve love...

Hi, my name is Jackson Monroe. I was born in Louisiana in 2005, and I’m suppose to be dead.

…

I was sixteen. My dad was an alcoholic. My mom was a pill addict. My sister died when I was thirteen. She was in a crash, my mom’s sister was at the wheel. Two lives were lost. The family dog Toh-Doh survived.

I know I probably shouldn’t vent to a stranger. But I’ve done something that ain’t right. An...

When we finally meet again, will you remember me as I remember you? My thoughts are drawn to you like -how did you put it - like a moth to a flame. I am the moth, and you are the flame. All you need to do is ignite and I will gladly burn for you. The way your eyes light up whenever you discover something new, or the way your brassy copper hair shines under the moonlight, or that little snort when ...

They have to be dating. Of course I don't know for sure. It's just, well, married couples that age—what are they, early-to-mid 40s?—don’t listen to each other with that much intensity. They no longer lean into the conversation; If there is conversation at all. What seems much more common these days is Wife looks at phone, Husband looks at everyone else. But not these two; They are very interested ...

you stare at my eulogies,

looking for sympathetic tragedies.

trying to read between my lines,

as if i’m trying to hide.

and when the ending doesn’t rhyme,

you judge me.

because my life must be a song,

forced to fit silly corsets to belong.

you say words are freedom,

to slice through barriers.

but i see you tying the knots,

locking muses behind golden glass.

we can only twist the words,

bu...

26 years. It took me 26 years to realize where I really was. What I’m really doing. And who really surrounds me.

You’ve surely been lost before right? Made mistakes too?

I was born and raised here in the Community of Saints. It’s all I know. This is what life is like here. I’ve heard the word “cult” before but it never meant anything to me until now.

Now that I am staring at a deceased body in...

People say that I’m too funny…

Yea I don’t see it, do you

I wanted to be a stand up comedian but I could’t cuz I always told my jokes sitting down.

See, I don’t get the humor in that, I’m just another normal human being 😂

This next one would be insulting if I knew what u looked like, but I don’t soooooo

Your funny… funny lookin lol see not funny!...

There was a time I didn’t understand myself; the things I did or the reasons I did them. Life moved forward in a series of random events connected by a vague attachment to my timeline. There were fuzzy recollections of events that may or may not have taken place. Memories on the tip of my tongue that didn’t seem real. The few that were remembered were the ones I didn’t want to know at all. A...

My name is Django Ahanu Two Axes born on Olde Earth among the Cree in the United States of MexiCanada. This is a 350-word essay about me. My mother tells me I have been loved everyday of my life. I find that hard to believe since I was surrendered to the federal orphanage at eight months old but grownups love fairytales. I don’t remember Earth of course.

I remember Mars. People call it the red pl...