The witch introduces herself as Umm Balqis but you are skeptical about whether the woman standing in front of you could ever have been a mother. A beast, bone thin, taller than most men, with thick black kohl in her eyes and faint green tattoo dots on her chin.
Read MoreA pale evening sun seeps in and bathes his aching body as he reaches out for the glass of lukewarm water his beloved Mala has left by his bedside. His throat feels raw from all those primal grunts and groans and his arms are heavy as if clad in cold iron chains. He lifts himself into the costume, musty shreds of a t-shirt and jeans bleached under the skylight then streaked artfully in red ink. He moves slowly, pours himself in, lets his mouth hang open then runs his tongue over his cracked bleeding lips…
Read MoreUmmi wants you to look your best. She's rented the habit from a professional costume store and even bought you the sheer black tights from the French lingerie shop you still blush to go inside…
Read MoreA group of narwhals is called a blessing. I learned this in the dark hours of the morning when I should have been sleeping but wasn’t. My eyes and mind poked open by a question asked of me earlier in the day.
Do you have other kids?
When I met her, it was almost spring. We rode back to my place in a taxi with the windows down. Then she tied me to my headboard, and the first hot breeze of the year was coming from my window.
The year after that night, I shaved myself everyday. I’d do it every other morning in the shower so that hair didn’t have time to grow back. I liked that when I looked down at my body, it looked like the body of a child, hairless and thin…
