The Neighbor
He drew a cooing dove from a cage on the porch. He caressed her breast and stretched her out to me, only I was frightened and started away, which he liked. Her wings were clipped, and he let her roam on the grass while he watched me in the pool, budding into my bathing suit. In decades, he would be a MAGA supporter, all-capping online inanities, but then he made my mother promises and slipped into my bed at night, and I wondered the faraway places of which birds dream; somewhere the sun scorched them clean, even their bones.