“We got pulled over by bored cops in a deadbeat town in the middle of the Hoosier state around 2 a.m. for having too much baggage in the backseat, driving a little too fast. The cops fumbled over her passport card, unsure whether it counted as legal identification. A couple days later we signed my daughter out of school and went to the courthouse in another town, slipped candy ring pops on our fingers, and told a very nice judge we’d do all the things we promised.”

– from “So Much Bastard Beauty,” Open Letters Monthly