is a bone you dig out of your bodywith another bone because how else can I describethe kind of time it takesforgiveness to thicken inside a body which is divided into varioushalf-heartedly warring nations a dry forest waitingfor the sky to blush a parking garageringed with shopping carts this carpet of fire ants floatingover the…
Shannon Airport was empty at 8:30 in the morning, just twenty of us stumbling off the red-eye from Toronto. A few dark-jacketed employees leaned on brooms to watch the fatigued arrivals. One pointed me to the bus for Limerick, where a small, gray-haired man waited. “I’m going to Shannon View Farm,” I said, “Will you…
In the dim forest cabin, a brown bear stared at me. He sniffed my suitcase. I froze. The bear looked at me with his deep black eyes. We gazed at each other. No longer afraid of him, I felt a close connection. I watched as he explored the small, rustic room, pawing at the door…
“They know locks are important,” the nurse says when she sees me watching a man, younger than my father, twist the switch of a deadbolt nailed to the wall in the dayroom—one of many locks nailed to the wall. Puzzles that can never be solved. Total fake-outs. A tumbler lock, a sliding door latch, an…
I’m surprised how long it takesher heart to stop. Strong old girl. Dr. Murrellkeeps the stethoscope pressed to her ribs.I lean down in front of her unblinking eyes. “You’re a good dog, Abby,” I assure her.Deb, Denny, and Dr. Murrell agree. “You area good dog, Abby.” A beat or two…he putsthe stethoscope away. Faint gray…
She held my dog’s paw like a gentle jewel.Wind blew her hair into a moonlit arc of ocean.I sat on the tub while she shaved her legs.We shrugged in the downpour. Playground wings and swings, unchained laughter.The pop of her lips released the bottle and her grin.Naked on the porch.Abandoning the stalled car forever. Pancakes,…
Soldiers gnawedthe ends of twigs to make brushes. What they sketchedwould be used to identify themwhen they were returnedto their families for ancestor worship. Gun oilas paint. The war-dead accruedon their papers. Roofs broken in with jacketed lead and herbicides, an expanseof fire. It was the endof an afternoon in 1970. The sun wrappedthe big…
When Luce gets home, the girl is standing in her living room. She looks about thirty, raw and full of want. “You must be Luce,” the girl says, wheeling around. Jangling energy flies off her in every direction. She’s been sent up from a magazine in the city. Luce has agreed the girl can stay…
She had a bed that came out of her wall. Every night, she made it appear and every morning, she made it disappear. “I never knew anyone like you,” he told her the first time he watched the magic trick. “What, a grown woman with a murphy bed? You think when I was your age…
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