I had the pieces of this short story in my poetry journal today I'd like to share it with you as a single chapter from a possibly larger version. The Bridge of Aszis How very sad, I used to think, that a mind can live its whole life locked inside a skull. On Earth, that thought came to me in crowded trains, in noisy cafeterias, in classrooms where people’s eyes were dull from too many facts and not enough wonder. I would look at all those faces and feel it — the sense that we were all carrying entire galaxies of thought and feeling, and most of it would never be known. Many mysteries does our mind hide. There is so much to learn. When I was ten, the headaches started — bright white bursts behind my eyes whenever someone nearby felt something intense. I could tell when my teacher was about to snap at the class, when the stranger across the bus aisle was quietly grieving, when my mother was worrying about money and trying not to show it. I didn’t hear their thoughts, not exactly. I...