Mama Has Too Much
| MAMA HAS TOO MUCH a short story published in Denver Quarterly |
VIEW PDF AND READ THE STORY "My Mama rides the subway like the family mule. She sits on its sway back and closes her eyes. Mama likes the subway because they both have seen too much and blink only when their eyes are dried out, dried out by the dust of the road, dried up from what's been kicked up by their passing. They carry their cargo without question between their cities, a ship of fools that cannot stop. They don't know what it is they're carrying inside, mostly because they haven't stopped to think, and the rest because when they do stop to think it's the same ragged thoughts over and over again. The same route traversed. It is familiar. Their backs are curved inward from the weight. My Mama is carried by the train, and the train is carried by the rails, and the earth carries the rails, and there is no telling exactly who or what carries the earth. Mama rides the subway every day, not really knowing what holds her up." |
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