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“She’s ic

There’s no lie in her fire”

—CHARLES BUKOWSKI

Once upon a time, there was a boy

The boy was sad and lost and violent, but inside him, lay peace

He is sitting on the porch in his ivy-laced, putrid front yard, fisting his hair, his eyes blank and clean He is beautiful, the boy The lord gave hih the boy would have preferred it the other way around

A wo her bloody fists against his back

That woman is his mother

Under his feet lies aon the yellowed grass Broken pieces of a vase adorn his head like Jesus’ crown of thorns and a sharp shard is stuck to his temple

That man is his father

Up above, heaven frowns at what the 22 year-old boy has just done, and down below, hell shakes its rusty gates open

In the distance, sirens are wailing their arrival Closer Nearer Louder

Once upon a tiirl

The 20-year-old girl was sheltered, privileged and of pedigree, but inside her, laid a storm

She dangles a shiny pair of new keys in her s on her face These keys will soon unlock a glitzy apartht to be rich, but every dis to her The money is bloody and tainted…but it’s hers

In this sa plucked by two burly officers frohts

His run-down house in Stockton is only an hour away from her swanky apartment

She is s

He is not

This is the story of a boy and a girl fighting stor to find peace in the most unexpected place