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Dreaming vs Pretending
How can you tell difference between dreaming and pretending? I dream of a better world where people don’t let greed get in the way of humanity. I dream of food systems that do not destroy our planet and the people who live on it. This dream slips into pretending when I tell myself and others…
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I did a Gap Analysis and found out what the world was missing: ME!
I did a Gap Analysis and found out what the world was missing: me! I’ve been hiding the treasure of myself from the world. It is exhausting, though, building and maintaining this vault to contain a powerful being. The vault is made of performative gestures, well-timed nods and comments on the weather. Lots of jell to…
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Gods and Monsters
“I am the best pimp. Did you know that?” Landy asked, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head toward me. I didn’t know that. The babbling water and drone of the crickets seemed magnified by the lull in our conversation. We sat on the banks of a rushing river under a bridge, an arc of…
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Lost in the Woods
I was 15 when I started to suspect I might be black. I’d left my home in Belize after spending all of my childhood in seclusion. For 14 years the only people I knew were my immediate family. I was home schooled in the rainforest. All the stories and books I’d read, like Cinderella, Treasure…
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Humans of Belize
“I was awakened by wind and noise. When I looked out, I saw roofs blowing off the houses, zinc flying in the sky like leaves, whole trees flying like kites. It was loud. We couldn’t go anywhere. It was too dangerous.” On October 31, 1961, category 5 hurricane “Hattie” made landfall on the central coast…
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Subjective Wealth & Success
One of the first things I did when I moved back home was to visit my dad’s old friend, Mr. Roy Williams. Ever since I could remember, Mr. Roy stood behind the bar at his small saloon drinking and serving beer and soft drinks to anyone who was buying. On the speakers of an aged…
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Hotboys
“You know you hot when you gotta dodge pussy.” He leaned back in the Monte Carlo until the leather seat was so low it was more like a lounge chair. A woman walked by. Slowly, he adjusted his seat back up but only halfway. He wore baggy Enyce pants tucked loosely into untied Tims and an oversized Ecko…
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Hot Bikes
Martin walked up the street back to the flea market place he had seen earlier. It was a beleaguered storefront with boarded up windows and people milling about outside, eyeing items arranged in haphazard fashion on the sidewalk. There was an odd assortment of things—toys, watches, mirrors, and at least two fire extinguishers. The bikes…
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The Fall
When I was eight years old, I fell out of a tree and my face smashed into the rosewood beams that lay beneath it. I still wonder how I’m alive today, or at least not incredibly deformed. It was a dry day, and I was taking a break between math problems. Way was talking to…
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Local Hardware
There’s a hardware store conveniently situated on the road heading out of town. Every Saturday on the way to the farm, the contractor usually asks to stop there to pick up odds and ends. We go in and are greeted with a nod by the bored clerk, a young man leaning on the counter and scrolling on his smart…