He Demanded I Apologize To His Mother Until The Door Opened

remains with me most now is not the arrest, not the paperwork, not the day the decree was finalized and I sat in a parking lot and ate a sandwich and felt something lighter than I had felt in so long I had forgotten what light felt like.

What stays with me is how ordinary he expected the cruelty to be.

Not the shove itself. The thing after it. The calm continue reading …