a bar tab without thinking. Something cold moved through Ethan’s chest. 30 years ago,Queens, a one room apartment above a laundromat. His mother working three jobs that still didn’t cover rent and food and medicine for the cough she couldn’t shake. He remembered being hungry, not the vague hunger of a late lunch.
the deep cellular hunger of poverty that made you lightheaded and taught you to ignore the cramps because complaining didn’t make food appear. He remembered his mother apologizing. “I’m sorry, baby. Mama’s working on it. She