When the long, hot journey drew to its end and the train slowed down for the last time, there was a stir in Jessamy’s carriage. People began to shake crumbs from their laps and tidy themselves up a little.

Gentrification often starts with the artists, revolutionaries, freaks, transfolks, and queers (what I would call my people) moving into poor neighborhoods inhabited by people of color.

Then he reached down and picked up the metal shelving from the thing and pushed it forward so it fell down on its other side with a loud crash.

Until noon, the hour of the funeral, crowds continued to file by the plain pine coffin on its plain flower-covered catafalque.