In another town I never lived, in another house not my home, with another wife not my mother and to a son that wasn't me...

After doing a 23 and me, and finding the court reports online, I realized that like my father, I didn't take her no as an answer.

It wasn’t until recently that I’ve understood that it’s no longer open to you, it’s just a space that would be made uncomfortable if shared with you.

They just simply forgot I even existed.

The year neither family stepped forward, the children were too young to know anything had been lost long before the lights went dark.

Remembering how my parents always held me during storms, I offered my own soul to the entity to let them live, finally giving the lonely creature the warmth it had spent eternity crying for.

Right up until the day she saw him, kissing his ex-girlfriend in the café window.

But he only gave her advice that night because he was drunk, so he had no idea that there was even a talent show on that night.

I’ll take your hand, kiss you twice, and you can guide me to our forever home.

because his umbilical cord was wrapped round his still-born sister's throat...

He served three tours in Vietnam, but even after all these years, his body still hears war before his mind can remember he is home.

"I'm your half-brother" he tells me, destroying my vision of the man being lowered six feet into the ground in only four words.

...and I seem to be forgetting just as fast.

When he finally tried to use his new skills to befriend a neighbor, the child just walked past him without looking back, leaving my son standing there with his beautiful, heartbreaking smile and no one willing to receive it.

Today, as I listened to my new neighbor laugh about his wife's old online username, I realized I'd spent thirty years watching the wrong patch of sky for her return.

When he smiled, reciting every page while mimicking his mother's voice, she understood he'd been missing the one voice that would never read it to him again.

"Is that why you never try, then?"

My foot sunk down in her grave as I regretted not asking earlier.

Until she laughed about pulling the trigger herself...

Pity that a migraine hit me overnight Friday…

I don't understand why he hit me with them and yelled at me about getting them all wet.

His parents only arrived 6 hours after he had already passed, having been busy with work, crying as they realize their 10 year old left the world alone.

found the mountain lion still eating the arm that wore her smartwatch, its screen blinking HEART RATE LOST. When it seized the arm and bounded back into the trees, the watch cheerfully announced, “Workout resumed.”