Nightboat Books

He carried me into the kitchen to get a glass of water He reached for a cup in the sink filled with dishwater Wait I said and opened the cabinet for a glass Still he went for the cup in the sink Why do you want to drink from a dirty glass I asked It doesn’t need to be clean he said But accepted the clean one I held out to him I held out a clean glass to him He accepted he said clean is a need isn’t it I asked to drink from a dirty glass I want you The sink the cup still a glass cabinet open I...

NARCISSUS NOBODY By Gina Yates, Three Rooms Press, 262 pages, $16 Hope Townsend is a seeker who stays in one place, a highly empathetic woman who prefers dogs to people. And her bar for people is low. She’s an office manager for a psychic hotline and picks up spare shifts hanging out with the sick and elderly — jobs she gravitated to after high school and is still in as she approaches 40. Her love life is similar. She has a thing for married guys who function like overgrown skater boys.