Liar's Lullaby

RLO

ITY-JUST A

e from work

upper-class cityscapes for the scar

pers turn into cru

suits turn into m

sidewalk even liter

the perfect meta

use I'm exhausted and starving. It's the kind of hunger that

the restaurant with no rest in

ce before dawn, which is

ballet flats are so worn-through that I can p

new sho

o need to

not, I don't have

ight now, I don't have

girl!" comes a shr

up at Mrs. Hammond. Her balcony overlooks the street an

yone else's business" happe

e," I mutter u

of times before-not that it did an ounc

arlie. And I don't like it

lk to Mama mu

n the porch, I say,

looks at me over the edge of

I asked you to call m

I've asked you to call m

Her penciled-on eyebrows rise as

straight-line nose. But her most prominent

ly hastily. "Jus

e, ain't i

extra shi

prayed-in-place curls bounce unnaturally around her face, cal

etty girl like you-you just need to find yourself

e suggestion. I

mother's g

s hell is

ma accent. Decades in the city have tried and fail

be laughing in my face at my word cho

een the scene of at least two murders, you risk setting the place on fire every time you tur

ngs. But it doesn't change the fact tha

do," Mrs. Hamm

t she doesn't care too much about that. I'm a

ate about your feminism or whatnot. But every

w. When will I ever learn the

ad down and

Mrs. Hamm-uh... Lisa,"

deli down the way," she tells me, completely oblivious

rested in mee

heaven's not?" she asks, as th

swer rises

d forty-one-year old, still working two menial jobs to try and

t I should

I do

r's life choices, it feels like a betrayal

mother-even if she on

ifth, because it'

h, because she thin

's

e really, I'm too hungry for this conversation. "But I re

rs, throwing her a polite smile

d from sight, I can b

ack into the shitty part of town. I take a right at the crossroads

swee

ew of apartment buildings. The one thing they all hav

hird building, the one with slightly dar

ate-at least the darkness masks most of t

l racking my brain

n burrito in the fridge fro

t it yesterda

Sur

u

mildewed walls are leaning in towards me, trying to

es off "murdery vibes,

to myself: Keep your he

cockroach chooses that exact

r and saying, Keep your head down all you want.

es flying down the-wait, nope, he's literally flying. Wings flapping an

ave wings now

ood. No burrito in my future, but I'm at least sixty percent ce

but I can cut away the b

s it's edible, I'm

I reach my door. I push my keys

ing

the