On the first night, we slaughter animals for the winter.

I walk behind my father carrying a shallow bowl of blood. Mother and I drained it from one of the chickens moments ago and it’s still warm.
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She has an iron tree hanging on her wall, with twisted roots and naked limbs stretching up and down equally. If you spun it around, the roots would turn into branches and the branches into roots. You couldn’t tell what reaches for the heavens and what is crawling with worms ( Read more... )

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You died far away from me, and I didn't know.

When Kitta comes to tell me, I am scraping seal hide to make into mittens for you, humming old lullabies and dreaming of your ship's prow cutting through the whale-road.
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There was a foot of standing water in Cora Fletcher's basement. When she touched the surface with her hand, it slopped against the walls, leaving a line of mineral deposit that crept up the cement ( Read more... )

Decker is actually kind of awesome. Sometimes that makes me feel guilty, like I'm failing the divorce test, like everyone else hates their stepdads because it's somehow required ( Read more... )

My sister Ariel is sprawled upside down on the couch, pointing with the remote. “News4 anchorman Ron Coleman is totally doing it with special correspondent Cora Butcher,” she says. “I bet they make out like hyenas as soon as Jim Dean starts giving the weather report ( Read more... )

I doomed him with a kiss ( Read more... )

The point is to be silent. The dead can't speak, so in their honor, neither do the living ( Read more... )