Literary Yard

Search for meaning

By: Laura Stamps

What does she feel like today? Which postcard? Something light. Bright. A sunflower. Yes. That’s it. That’s the one. “Dear Elaine,” she writes. “This morning. On Tucker Road. Driving home from work. I saw a man. Walking. So, so strange. Carrying a black mattress. He was. Draped over his head. And his hands. That’s all you could see. Holding the mattress. And his legs. Beneath it. Walking, walking. Just hands and legs. That’s it. And black. All of it. The mattress. His clothes. His shoes. Black. Everything. Black. And I wonder, wondered. How can he see where he’s going? And yet, and yet. This man. This mattress. So, so black. It reminds me of a book I’m reading. The Dark Night of the Soul. You know. St John of the Cross. Those times in life. So, so dark. When you can’t see where you’re going. For weeks. Months. The dark night. Miserable. That’s what it is. But that’s not what I called it years ago. The dark night. No. Marriage. That’s what it was. To me. That’s what I called it. Marriage. Mine. So, so dark. And yet, and yet. Like this man. On Tucker Road. I kept walking, walking. Searching for light. Some. Any. Until, until. My lawyer. He said it. Divorce. And suddenly. There it was. Light. At last. Can we all sing hallelujah? Oh, yeah.”

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Laura Stamps loves to play with words in her fiction and prose poetry. Author of 49 novels, novellas, short story collections, and poetry books. Forthcoming: “The Good Dog” (Prolific Pulse Press 2023) and “Addicted to Dog Magazines” Winner of the Muses Prize. (Impspired, 2023). Recipient of a Pulitzer Prize nomination and 7 Pushcart Prize nominations.

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