Neighborhood Watch. Sandra Kolankiewicz. Before dawn each morning I see the obvious parts of his daily routine. First the bedroom light flips on. Within.
Before dawn each morning I see the obvious parts of his daily routine. First the bedroom light flips on. Within seconds the discreet square that is the bath goes white, his house the tallest, standing beside where I sit on my small porch in the dark, sometimes with a blanket, no longer needing to raise eyes to know when he moves from washing his face, brushing his teeth, into the walk-in closet that used to be the nursery. For a moment all the lights go on at once, patch of lawn between us tiled with yellow rectangles even as the sun begins to transition from the other side of the world. Then he sends the upper floor back into what’s left of night, the kitchen ablaze behind blinds. I consider it throughout the day, knowing all about him but the particulars, no one to care after he drives off in his Jeep.
Sandra Kolankiewicz’s work has appeared in Gargoyle, Prairie Schooner, Prick of the Spindle, Per Contra, and Pif. Her books include Turning Inside Out (Black Lawrence Press), The Way You Will Go (Finishing Line), and a fully illustrated novel, When I Fell (Web-eBooks). She lives with her family in OH. stormcellarquarterly.com • Storm Cellar 4/3 • 47
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The Starry Night whirled across a horse of fiberglass ... My favorite horse was bolted down and wore a ... the beginning bending clear and painless as the end.
stages, so-called break rollers crack the kernel open. The children smudge a case of assorted donuts. I spent my childhood looking at braided spikelets in rapid.
sunflower seeds and Bazooka Joe, tightening and re-tightening our batting gloves, rubbing small dabs of pine tar into the underside of the bills of our hats.
