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When Next I Dream
Denton Loving’s fiction, poetry and reviews have appeared in numerous journals, including Birmingham Arts Journal, Appalachian Journal, and Minnetonka Review. His work has also been published in a number of anthologies, including the recently released Degrees of Elevation: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia. He has poems forthcoming in Main Street Rag and Plain Spoke.
‚Vining Mirror‛ by E.A. Hanninen, 2011
Loving
There will be no snakes, only wild elephants with flapping ears and ancient wisdom — sturdy beasts I can count on. There will be girls who find feathers and boys who are looking for their own forgotten names. We will all retrieve something lost, something we forgot we needed, objects known by sight when we see them. I’ll recall songs from memory, heroes from the past, saints praying under live oak trees, shaking blue bottles, bringing peach pies and spring babies. One of these good people will teach me how to pray like I’m on fire, supply me a soft pillow of a lap to place my head. I may still be lost, but I’ll be happy because I’ll discover some piece of myself somewhere I wouldn’t have thought to look, like in your pocket or under your shiny new shoe. There will be no cords to bind my hands, to lace around my body, tie me to what I no longer wish to be hitched. But in case the ropes surprise me, curl up like vines around my neck, I will dream wire cutters are lying nearby.
Denton