It starts and ends in seconds. You feel a rumble like split earth. Then the condo is rubble, and you are gone. He loves burying Hope’s bone. You don’t know when it will happen. It happened, and you didn’t think it would. You wake up and find your dog’s body in the corner of the…

on the kitchen sinkdripdripdripsall night. I feel the watertricklingdownintomy earinto my skulland my brain can’t stop swimmingor it will drown. Copingis better than the alternative.Usually.The codeine helped my cough butnow the bottle’s dry and that same goddamndrippy faucet is the heavytickof a grandfather clock astime becomesquicksandand I still can’t stopswimming but the more I strugglethe…

I don’t know if anyone has ever been so careful not to hurt me. It’s strange how that’s what broke my heart. They say after seven years, every cell in your body has been replaced. I know it doesn’t really work like that. But it was about seven years gone when I realized I couldn’t…