a bomb for every building that contains me…

This MFA thesis is a collection of eight short stories about places that linger in the minds of the characters who lived in them. For some, these locations offer a path towards spiritual cleansing. For others, they evoke the wish to escape or even destroy the cyclical act of remembering. In the titular story, “a bomb for every building that contains me…,” an artist draws bombs hoping to blow up all the places that contain her art. In “La Iglesia,” two boys make an abandoned church their secret chill spot where they are free to explore their sexual urges. In “Superstar,” a divorcee befriends a homeless man during his visits to a New Jersey park with a view of the New York City skyline. “Next Summer Girls” is a story told in vignettes, about three friends’ devilishly romantic summer vacations. In “@Jimmydoesnteat,” a waitress working at a “breasturant” named BOOBRITOS seeks spiritual connection in an online guru who live streams himself not eating for months. In “The Douche,” a college student has a one-night stand with a closeted married man in his college dorm room involving a magical fairy drug called Q. In “My Dominican Barber and Dark Wizard Wife,” a white man married to a dark wizard from a different dimension becomes fascinated by his Dominican barber’s talent, penis size, and culture. Lastly, in “08/08/08 at La Leona,” a young boy learns something about his mother at a Cuban Masonic Lodge. Since not all the stories in this collection are auto-fiction, the term “goonlit” fits better, as many characters are goonified reflections/shadows of myself––fully exposed, and with the intent to upset, offend, and awaken anyone in need of light.