Kirsti Whalen: Brave Like

an excerpt



Gaffer toe inside lake water. Not cold in there. Is not. Like. Imagined. Run, he say. Little eel snap snapping at your toes. Water like mud and thick too. Shallow but. Out. Out, Love Little. Out for it. Little run, Little One. Little One, his name for me.



But we are West. Rules snap snapping. This the other side. East of home and West of an older one. Western Springs. Springs