The Heather Stalks

hard-pressed against the border
of the smoke glass sky.

Watching their feet
they turned and ground the mud forward
his ankles rusted with the bog's thick dust.

He carried her body
West, the whole way
chronicling the hours before
he knew they would fall beneath the freezing stars.

their pale skin
staggered and stretched across the
interlocked soil:
the turf, the bog.

The child in her stomach
their last breath
the movement of the last heat

Alec James Egan is a student of creative writing at Kenyon College. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and has spent time living in Ireland.