Long Bright River

by Liz Moore

—You sure about this, Mike? he says. It’s a reference to The Godfather. One that he probably doesn’t expect me to recognize.

I’ve had a certain bad habit ever since I was a child. I duck what I can’t bring myself to acknowledge, turn away from anything that causes me to be ashamed, run away from it rather than addressing it. I am a coward, in this way.