Head On
by Kathy Mac
“Words for the various levels of hell.
Words for the forest, the trails worn against it.
To name such places was to name limbo”
-Michael Goodfellow
“the way shot through with longing and starlight.”
The ghost wakes exhausted. | Character | Gets up to let the dog out, knowing he’ll come right back for his breakfast. | Plot | At the woodlot they walk easy across the parking lot. The dirt trail? Another matter. | Setting | The ghost puts its left foot-shadow down and down it keeps going. | Theme | But the dog needs to move, to swim, so the ghost struggles on.
“Each journey begins with loss…”
The ghost makes it back to the car, dog dripping in its wake. | Homonym | Drives to the exit. Signals a left turn. Looks that direction. | Style | A giant, square, backhoe thing lumbers toward them, partly on the shoulder, a long way down the road. |Anaphora, sort of. | Looks right. A blue car about a quarter click that way. Looks left again, tractor closer but still space to pull out. Glances right, okay, starts out.
“…though when we were young we were taught to call it setting.”
Sees a silver car speeding past the tractor on the wrong side of the solid yellow line. | Suspense | The ghost hits the brakes. Backs back into the exit. | Climax | The silver car and the ghost’s life flash left to right before its eye-holes.
Source of the epigraph and quotes:
Goodfellow, Michael. “Analog.” Folklore of Lunenburg County, p.14. Gaspereau Press, 2024.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Kathy Mac (she/her) has authored three published books of poetry (Roseway), two books on the craft of writing (Wording Around), and, as Dr. Kathleen McConnell, a book of essays (Wolsak and Wynn). Her work has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and won the Gerald Lampert Award. Mac lives in Nme’kaqnuk near Halifax in the unceded traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq peoples.
Facebook: @kathymac1