I Could Cook Up Something or Bore You with Details of my Uneventful Life       I drifted across the world's borderless spaces ran from its volcanoes, watched as the lava seeped into the lives of those who could never understand why they were baptized in red rivers. I barely escaped its floods or shifting plates of desire. In a village remote from machines or the men controlled by them, I fell in love with a girl of perfect imperfections, an exquisite avatar from a game you never win. Her off center nose but her eyes the color and depth of green forests. Not understanding one another's language we spoke in signs. She turned out to be as possessive as the world. One day, jealous of me signing with another woman, she stole my knife and stabbed me twice below the shoulder. She was really aiming for my heart. It happened at a high altitude where words, if they could be spoken, would leave one short-winded. It left me speechless.         - Kyle Hemmings