At some point during my brother’s illness, my aunt and uncle came to watch my sisters and me. I  remember mercifully little about those days, but I remember that they brought us to see the  submarines in Groton.

That’s not to say that the wars of my youth were any more meaningful or any less questionable. They were just as suspect—but they were mine—and this war is not.

You called yourself Cherry or Candy, something with a ‘C.’ You avoided giving me your real name when I ask.

Next time you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, imagine someone on the crowded street wants you dead.

Night vision goggles strip away depth perception, rendering reality in two dimensions.

As we talked, he revealed a beautiful smile. His eyes, not covered by sunglasses like the captain’s, were dark green. I was infatuated.

Make it stop, I thought. Please make it stop. But that made no difference.

It’s a matter of the flag being the symbol of a people conjoined in harmony. It doesn’t belong to a party or group or a president, but a people united under shared principles.

You pressed your head hard against my chest the way you always did when night terrors woke me.

A waste of time is hard to define.

My memories are aging as I am.

That moment in the spotlight eclipses the resolve.

You don’t forget a leader like Bill Searfus. And whenever I inspect tie-down chains, I see him vividly. That image of him wildly dancing.

Every one of us stood rigid with a fixed salute, never taking our eyes off the truck. Our brothers.

There are a lot of bad stories out there.

I’d die a thousand deaths but still wake up.

I had no other option than to be 'fine.' I knew he was right. But that didn’t give him the right to say it to me.

“Would you rather be pregnant alone or have the baby alone?” Ryan asks. I dig my pale white toes next to his in the sand.