My Cousin Digs My Father’s Grave
Rent from DeepDyve- My Cousin Digs My Father’s Grave
Time is no obsession here. What can be done by hand still is. So my cousin and two deacons broke the hard October ground with mattocks and shovels.
That afternoon we came. Out by the barbed wire that kept Randy Ford’s cows from wildflowers and homemade wreaths, the deacons leaned on their shovels, waiting to cover a man they had not seen in years.
My cousin waited too, under the ragged canvas tent, refused my mother’s check with a nod, offered a few words and his strong, soiled hand, its confirmation of blood, blistered from a grave well dug. [End Page 28]
Ron Rash was first published here in 1988, six years before his first book appeared, and he was our first featured author (Fall 2003). A professor at Western Carolina University, his fourth story collection Burning Bright (2010) won the international Frank O’Connor Award. He has published five novels and four poetry collections.
