Break

An owl cranes its neck

out an old barn loft.

Below a crooked spine

and a future unfolds.

Doctors and lawyers

with papers untold.

White sacks filled with pills

in a little black truck.

Wires and barrels

and boots stuffed with paper

Money.

All from a slip.

A whistle.

A break.

Bio:

Rick Childers is a writer from Estill County, Kentucky. He received his BA in English from Berea College and an MA in Writing from the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. His work has appeared in Limestone Journal as the runner-up for the Gurney Norman Prize for Fiction, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Still: the Journal, Heartwood Literary Magazine, and the San Joaquin Review Online. His debut novel TURKEYFOOT is forthcoming from Shotgun Honey Books this September. He can be contacted through stoveleg.com, Facebook, or X.