Charmed
- Charmed
There is no statuteof limitations on guilt, cousin,despite the weddingsfunerals and baptismswhere our paths have crossed.I still clutch the memoryof you taking a whippingbecause you happened to dropyour eyes from my precious beingfor the span of twenty breaths, forgettinghow quickly children can hatch a plotlike a chick from an egg,on a day perfect for killing fowland running through clotheslineswith a pitchfork once restingon the side of the house,its recent work scrapingguillotined chicken headsinto an earthen hollowall but forgotten.I grasp the handlehoist it overheadswerving back and forthpreventing blooded tinesfrom stretching toward earth,until suddenly backlitscarlet-streaked bed sheetsbillow forth,proclaiming the devil’s workfor all to see. [End Page 137]
ARTRESS BETHANY WHITE is the author of the poetry collection Fast Fat Girls in Pink Hot Pants. She has received the Mona Van Duyn Scholarship in poetry from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a 2014–2015 Postdoctoral Faculty Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association. Her poetry has recently appeared in Poet Lore and Menacing Hedge, and is forthcoming in the Account. She is associate professor of English at Carson-Newman University.*
