William R. Soldan is a writer from the Ohio Rust Belt and the author of the story collection In Just the Right Light. His work has appeared is such publications as Neologism Poetry Journal, Jelly Bucket, Bending Genres, Gordon Square Review, and many others. You can find him at williamrsoldan.com if you’d like to connect.
Dust and Ash
Had there ever been a time, she wondered, when her shoulders weren’t bowed beneath a great weight, a thing pressing her into the dust that had come and would be coming? What wide spaces we scavenge, she thought, like gulls in the sand. The sky burns and here we are, pecking through shards for something to sustain us. How the dream of rain carries, etches the world, then rips into strips when we reach out our hands. What are trees are not trees, but these upright bones and gashed knees sunk in the ashes.