2 June 2004 | Vol. 4, No. 2

Why I'm Here

by DORENE O'BRIEN

My parents remembered the Cuervo but forgot the condom.

I wasn't flattened by that bus when I was five.

I didn't go with Thom and Mick to the ravine that night.

My dad fled to Canada.

I don't bug rabid dogs.

Mick flashed his .38 in homeroom.

My mom refused to go to the clinic.

Where the hell else would I be?

The witch told me the trees at the ravine smelled like de