I ARRIVED AT MY BEACH HOUSE EXPECTING PEACE-YILUX

I had to remind myself it was still real, still mine, still something no one had the right to take away.

The air smelled wrong, heavy with perfume, smoke, and burned food, nothing like the quiet salt and tea I had carried here for twenty years of small, careful healing.

Every surface told a story I didn’t recognize, a story written in carelessness, in continue reading …