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Monstrosity |
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by DeAnna Stephens Vaughn
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Her brother lassoed the monster she found between the creek and their house. He anchored the rope between two spikes along its backbone; its head lurched, and its tail whipped a chinquapin tree. She helped him tug it home where they trapped the bulk of its body beneath an overturned washtub, its tail too long, too rigid with scales to fit. She tells her daughter it had escaped from the carnival where ticket takers shimmered in skin the color of ripe dewberries. She had brushed the ticket taker’s hand, trying to bronze her own with that luster she had once stolen from moth’s wings. Everyone was afraid. Her brother led the monster away, tied it to a tree, shot it before their father made it home from the mines.
DeAnna Stephens Vaughn ’s work has appeared most recently in Margie, Edge, and Canadian Woman Studies. She teaches writing at Roane State Community College.
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