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A l l G o o d C h i l d r e n
Advance Reading Copy
Montgomery and Kayla, Saffron and Chicago, the baby on
the sidewalk yesterday, Zachary and Melbourne from the
park, Lucas from downstairs, the high school kids on skate-
boards, the throwaways on skates. I’ll paint all of us doing
what we used to—dancing and running and fighting and
playing and laughing and being kids. I’ll paint us on the
walls inside the tent where I’m hiding now, in dazzling hues
and luminance. I’ll leave the walls outside dull gray, stenciled
with a single word. I’ll call the whole thing
Withstanding on a
Perilous Planet
. And I’ll give it to Xavier as a belated birthday
present. I’ll tell him it’s a metaphor.
