Listen to Podcast Interview with Grace Cavalieri on The Poet and the Poem

Four Small Stories

<One>

         A small boy witnesses the death of his father.
         A week later he goes into the father's closet and
         picks out one of his ties. He struggles with
         the ends, unable to fasten the knot.
         [The boy is the brother in story #4.]


<Two>

         A mother searches her son's desk drawer.
         There is a small glassine bag of heroin in the
         drawer but she doesn't see it. It's underneath a
         diary that she is afraid to open.
         [The mother is the woman in story #3.]


<Three>

         A woman stands on a street corner waiting.
         She's going to ask her husband for a divorce.
         Just as he arrives she goes to check her face
         in a store window but is unable to see herself.
         [The husband is the father in story #1.]


<Four>

         A man seeks forgiveness from his brother.
         It is an old wound. They sit down
         across from each other in a diner booth.
         They talk until they have nothing more to say.
         [The man is the son in story #2.]

from American Software