Chain linked - Michelle Blair Wilker

The human heart: you can't live with it, and you can't live without it.

We are bound together and yet broken apart, like a chain link fence.

We yearn for connection's kinship and mourn its losses; it is the fabric of our existence and what drives us. The agony of lost love, the hollowness of an absent family member, the cute guy on the basketball court that you just can't muster up the courage to say hi to. A summer trip to Montauk. A night out at a salty dive bar. A foghorn in the distance, sipping a sweet drink. Emptying the fridge, packing up the old condo. Listening to Grandpa's corny jokes. Wondering if life as a prep school art teacher meant anything. Getting even with your older brother. Haunted by Havana's vacant casino high rises and ancient automobiles, dreaming of pizza in Rome.

Chain Linked chronicles life's joys and discontents in vivid detail and gives us a window into our souls.