he presses a two-minute-old cigarette to the nape of my neck to re- mind me he thinks that i am at his fingertips. sometimes i snicker at the ideology that i am any one’s for the keeping. i see him in passing and i do not act less passive. the…

i grew up in the city and the suburbs, which exposed me to experiences unlike and dissimilar to mine. but one truth across the board is that adults seem to like to hoard the tenacity for a lack of propensity pertaining to common decency. i do not have the capacity …