Baby Teeth

The first cut, as they say, is the deepest

I couldn’t sleep last night. Every drunk yelling under the window finally slipped away by 3AM and left the street silent.

My beloved was deep in slumber, a fort of pillows protecting his right flank. I curled up on my lover’s other side and woke him up.

1959, Oakland

“Jon, tell me a story,” I said, “you know, a really personal story.”

It’s a little joke. …