Eric Burke
Mom was dad’s first wife. She used to smile at him and roll clove cigarettes. She’d sit in a lawn chair, smoking, while he carefully salted all the thistle in the yard. I remember this. He’d be thinking how artificial she looked with those cigarettes. (She’d be thinking what I’d be thinking: “Thistle roots are edible.”) He would walk back through the brown-spotted grass, pat her on the shoulder, and disappear into the basement.
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Eric Burke works as a computer programmer in Columbus, Ohio. Recent work can be found in elimae, PANK, qarrtsiluni, A cappella Zoo, and decomP. Work is forthcoming in Word Riot. You can also read his blog Anomalcrinus Incurvus.
