To Be Devoured

by Sara Tantlinger

It would be two more days until they found my parents in the river, until I saw my mother’s shattered face and ruined eyes. What if I had saved part of her skin or brain or liquids before she was buried? Maybe she’d be living inside me, a small part of her, whispering and guiding me through this life. My whole family, they could be here suspended within my body rather than remembered as skeletons buried inside my bone-castle of memories.