Afternoon rays cast golden hues over the marble sill. Joyce wrung lemon-scented suds from her dishrag and gazed through the window. Tweeting mounted around their backyard’s birch. A robin swooped into the tree, nudging a scraggy-feathered youngling. The front door banged shut. Joyce turned from the window. “Alyssa?” “Hey, Mom.” She…
Laying out. Sunbathing. Tanning. Lobsterwoman beach-bake. Call it what you will, but I never enjoyed lying still in a puddle of sweat. Maybe it's because my only hope of tanning rests in the day my freckles bleed together. My pale flesh resists those rays, so friends stand a better chance of bronzing…
"Hosanna!"Dust rolled up from the shuffle of thousands of sandals. Fresh cut palm fronds mingled a clean scent with the sweat of bodies pressing closer to the road. Tattered cloaks flew overhead like banners unrolling across the spring sun. Kings went to war in this season, returning on a donkey to…