Mother, Mother
Koren Zailckas
A family is a tyranny ruled over by its weakest member.
—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
through fog, it is impossible to perceive fiery eyes greedy claws jaws through fog one sees only the shimmering of nothingness … were it not for its suffocating weight and the death it sends down one would think it is the hallucination of a sick imagination but it exists for certain it exists
—ZBIGNIEW HERBERT,
“THE MONSTER OF MR. COGITO”
Table of Contents
HER FACE WAS the first thing William Hurst saw when he opened his eyes from his not-so-sweet dreams. His mother, Josephine, was smiling down at him, her blue eyes misty-soft, sunlight streaming through her hair, the same way it did to the happy Jesus in Will’s Storybook Bible.
On this particular Saturday, mother