Bedtime Stories

I read to you because my mother read to me.

And in those moments I felt as loved and as safe as a strangely paranoid and anxious child could feel

-Certainly more safe than the rote prayers that my grandmother made me parrot back to her made me feel-

And for years

-long after I'd stopped remembering to pray-

I couldn't fall asleep without reading.

Public Transit

Laughing at a stranger's jokes
is equal parts relief
and mania.