Work in progress.

An excerpt from a piece I am working on. A dedication to Stefan, Amy, Adele and Brooklyn, NY:




Sometimes sleep does not come easy. My eyes jolted open, to an immense darkness wrapped in cold. The tiny window above my head opened onto a brick wall, which stood firmly a foot away, allowing very little room for the air around me to move. It was winter, the air was chilled but it still felt stuck in my throat. Welcome to Brooklyn.

I threw the covers off me and walked into my roommate’s room. Our apartment was what they call “railroad style”. My room led into her room, and her room led into my room, which led into a skinny hallway leading to other rooms. By rooms I mean small, linear holding cells. One of the other rooms had a tarp separating it from the hallway and my space was no bigger then 150 sq ft. It was our voluntary prison that seemed to swallow everything around it, including conversations and socks. She was awake and facing an old 13” TV she stole from her mothers house. The blue light from the TV devoured her face as she ripped away and looked over. We were past the point of knocking; the walls could have been a thin clear plastic.

“Let’s get out of here.” As the TV softly chattered.

Those words were like a secret code opening heavy steel doors in us; leading to bare, damp, open streets. We dressed for the winter outside and leapt into the city.


-Sujey Lee