Eaters of the Dead

Digger quietly cleaned up the torn dirt, replaced bits of bone as he could and buried others, telling no one of his actions or the causes. He had come into the habit of wandering the graveyard in the evening, listening for the scraping sound of tooth on bone.

Tip of a Leaf

That's what the pandemic viral desperados did to us, a chance to cry like never before longer besides sending us six feet under. It emptied our shared vanity, singling our lachrymose ducts, victims in our own ceremonies, and uncompromisingly masked for keeps.

Decay

My life’s course—my separation from most people, my extinguished hopes, the accumulation of final betrayals—seems almost preordained by the place where I first drew breath...

The Baseball Coach

In Alapawan prison, most of his cellmates were “separatists” advocating for the independence of Taiwan. They were able to leave their cells to do odd jobs, like cleaning restrooms, laundering clothes sent to the prison, or growing vegetables on the empty field next to the prison.