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from “The Moan Wilds”

   



When it got bad. Dog in the picture on the flyer at the gas station. That someone decided to say it was peppered, no one else would, I know, because I looked. When time became so cool that anyone could get knee deep in it. I wish I could say how long it was gone, or what the weather was. I wish I could say how far I would be willing to drive for tomatoes, or sparklers.

When it got bad. I tried not to force the conversation, to drive it, and look where it got me. Without service in the middle of a storm. The entire fucking sky, ransacked and rearranged and still, grinding to nothing but sound.

When it got bad. I was not made to sing. I know I was not made to sing.


Caroline Rayner is a writer and teacher from Virginia. She is the author of a chapbook, calorie world (Sad Spell, 2017). Her work can be found in b l u s h, KEITH LLC, jubilat, Peach Mag, Black Warrior Review, Shabby Doll House, and elsewhere. She currently lives in western Massachusetts.