L.E. Sullivan

You should be writing. This is the voice in my head. Shadowy. A little metallic, as if it's a machine or perhaps I am.

But all I can think of is Algia Mae Hinton and Sister Rosetta Thorpe. Cora Fluker building her own guitar in the woods of Alabama--maybe a reprieve from the memory of almost being beaten to death.

The medicine of music.

I've grown calluses I never thought I could grow. And in the span of the world pressing down on my head--our heads--grown noise into melody.

I am not a machine. The short stories and novels must resume, but for now, I'll let nylons and steel strings teach me to rest. To remember that I should be here. That's all.

We should be here.