headline from the New York Times, 9/19/19
Have you noticed their absence, too? The blur
of beak and wing no longer
rising en masse from a field of sweet
timothy? It’s so easy to get used
to change and live along with its
vibrations. The mockingbird at my grandma’s old house,
he doesn’t sing. Instead, he rumbles
like an escavator.
*
Shaun Turner is the author of chapbooks “The Lawless River: Stories” (Red Bird Chapbooks) and “Trying Not to Write Roadkill: Poems” (Ghost City Press). He serves as Fiction Editor for Stirring: A Literary Collection and co-editor at Fire Poetry Journal. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry can be found in the Chattahoochee Review, Bayou Magazine, Appalachian Heritage, and Barely South, among others.
Shaun Turner recommends Claire Vaye Watkins’ “I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness” in Granta. The story won a Pushcart Prize, and it’s so sharp and personal, and every time, Shaun reads it hungrily, breathlessly.
