They Are the Hunters

by Faith Gardner

Her life was a nightmare pretending to be a dream. When Angela went away

As Carson chases the words frantically with his pen to paper, a thrill travels through him like a delightful little electrocution.

Some people swallow their pride. Carson swallows his humiliation and it

hurts like a sharp pebble on the way down his dry throat.

bed. She gets a chill, an ice that blooms from the inside out. She’s quite literally frozen with fear. She doesn’t know how to

Carson asks. Olivia nods, though she’s thinking, oh no, I

Olivia stops to smell the sweetness of the pages, then flips to the poem she’s looking for: “A Poison Tree.” She read it many times in the week before her dad went missing and it speaks to her, it resonates with a new special meaning, as if William Blake wrote it just for her. I was angry with my friend,

The intro before the poem says it’s about the importance of communication, but Olivia disagrees. This is a poem about the gorgeousness of getting the last word.

It’s time for revenge—that apple bright.