Community Reviews
Nineteen. Finally found the time to get here: going away, party of one. Bathroom had a nice atmosphere. Scarf around the neck could’ve been tighter—didn’t think doorknobs could feel this way. Would’ve been nice to feel the hands and legs sputter; lips and eyes trapped and bulging; a full-body tingle to signal the send-off: no blood; no pain; no mess. Figured it’d be better to leave an easy shell than a pretty one. Final courtesy and all that.
Of time, there’s this: the pink stripes around the neck in the mirror after, which was the most surprising—as if to mimic the sky was as simple as pulling its color into one’s cheeks. Figured they’d have been as blue as the walls by now. Of distance, an unwritten note; what I can’t say still: Sorry, Mom. What a thing to stumble on. Hope the traffic coming home from work was light today.
Daniel Garcia's essays appear or are forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Quarterly West, Guernica, Passages North, The Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Poems appear or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, Electric Literature, swamp pink (formerly Crazyhorse), and others. A recipient of prizes, scholarships, and grants from Tin House, PEN America, and others, Daniel is the InteR/e/views editor for Split Lip Magazine, the Creative Nonfiction editor for GASHER Journal, and a Lambda Literary Emerging Fellow in Nonfiction. Daniel’s essays also appear as Notables in The Best American Essays. Daniel tweets @_iloveyoudaniel.