three imaginary boys in orange

climbing out of the subway, i meet a girl face-to-face. hers is wide and pale, shocked by our confrontation. "it's not my fault the doors opened," i say. "they just do that." i get out, you get in. but her eyes look at me, accusatory.

later, on a quiet street, i startle a middle-aged woman deep in thought on the steps of her apartment. she is smoking a cigarette and her face registers the same level of shock as the girl on the subway. she hangs, suspended, on the other side of her frozen smoke-cloud, dangling delicately from its salty plume.

this is one of my favorite lines: "Justin's
syncope still lasted, and his eyeballs disappeared in the pale sclerotics
like blue flowers in milk."

we are people flowers. pink disappearing inside the milky snow. huzzah.


Summer-Colored Winter Slaw

1 head of kale, leaves stripped from stems and roughly chopped
1/2 head of small purple cabbage, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 apple, cored and roughly chopped
2 tbsp apple-cider vinegar
1 tsbp olive oil

Place olive oil in pan over medium high heat. Add cabbage and apple, turn to coat.(I also added a 1/4 cup of water to the pan to help steam the cabbage down.) Cover, turn heat to medium, let cook for approximately three minutes -- until cabbage softens slightly. Uncover, add apple-cider vinegar. Stir. Add carrot and kale, let cook down until kale wilts slightly, stirring and turning the mixture steadily. (This won't take long, kale cooks very quickly).