by Allegra Hyde

“Here’s Jacob: thirty-four god-damn years old, rock in his hand, beard like a troubled distraction, like an itch, the red eyes of someone sleepless and wild. Here’s Jacob, tongue-cottoned and pale, ragged and unkempt. He looks like an old man, or like an old man dipped in wax. It’s bad. He looks like people you see on the street and you think, ‘Jesus fuck, what happened to that guy?’ His beard is a dead animal glued to his face.”

-Zulema Renee Summerfield