dad 

teach me how to get that bald shiny

just like you. and there we’ll be 

two scalps approaching bald 

Right about now, the devil, all come hither and cosmic slop, will claim his corner. He’ll flash his chest muscles and grunt your entire Christian name in a way you ain’t never heard before. Ignore him, but keep an eye trained in his direction.

Everybody gets old, Grandma always says. Everybody withers.

“The balloon continued to expand until it was big enough for me to crawl inside and curl up like an embryo in a green rubber womb.”

“Can you forgive me?”

“…it seemed the farther they traveled from home, the closer they were to those stars.”