Boys in the Valley

by Philip Fracassi

His head ROARS with the sound of the gleeful swarm, buzzing and growing fat on his sin, crowding every inch of space inside his mind, devouring his thoughts.

As the boy-priest speaks the words of baptism, he can almost feel his body being submerged in cool water. The sun shining on his skin as he’s raised up, renewed. Reborn yet again, but this time in mercy.

I don’t know who screams my name. My ears are rushing with sound, as if a hole has been blown open in my mind and a black ocean is now pouring through, filling me with death.