from The Seed Keeper

I dreamed my mother called my name in a voice that ached with longing. I dreamed the acrid smoke of a fire stung my eyes, blurred the edges of the woman who held a deer antler with both hands as she pulled on a smoldering block of damp wood. The flames were the only light in a darkness so complete the trees had disappeared. The smell of decayed leaves mingled with the piss-sharp scent of fear. Behind her, the carcass of a gutted buck hung from a branch by a rope knotted around its legs, […]