Gail Louise Siegel

Dave at the Sink

Dave is in the kitchen, lis­ten­ing to the radio: a sci­en­tist bemoan­ing the death of but­ter­flies. How many Monarchs are there? Enough to make the boughs of giant trees bend beneath their weight, even while each one weighs less than a paper clip. 

He emp­ties the dish­wash­er, aim­less as ever. First a pink glass, then two forks, then three plates (one chipped) and a glass again – a French jel­ly jar. Through the win­dow over the sink, the garage seems to tilt, one side bulging up, off the foun­da­tion. Dave opens the door, and there it is, an immense fis­sure. Birds dart out of the sil­ver maple, a squir­rel leaps over the jagged hole. Animal chat­ter drowns out the radio, even while each chirp, each caw, is no sharp­er than a key­board­’s mid­dle C.

Gail Louise Siegel’s work has appeared across the web and in print, from Ascent, Elm Leaves and FRiGG, to Post Road, StoryQuarterly and Wigleaf. She has an MFA from Bennington College and lives in Evanston, Illinois.