Salvation from the Eternal Silence

Cemetery Art - Stone Angel

"Wings"

was first published in

The Chariton Review

at Truman State University

in the Spring 1982 issue. 

Wings

James Hart

Barely three,

stuck in the hog wallow

up to my waist,

seeing the boar circle

closer each turn

around the bank,

I shriek in

counterpoint to boar

grunt.  Mud-snuffling

and mean, anemic-eyed,

it glares.  I scream

until my father

pulls me free,

washes off mud

and sends me homeward

from hell released.