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      • ​David Moolten Spring 2025
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Ashlie Allen

Mother Scarecrow is My Mother

An Autumn day full of plums. The crows are a frantic carousel riding the horizon. There is nothing on my mind, except maybe the gnats that are coming to nibble my flesh. The sky is a pumpkin wearing a burgundy robe and the clouds are grim masks. I wish I wasn’t so alone with all this beauty. I wish the crows would have left behind some of their feathers today so I could’ve put them in my hair and felt fascinating. 

But they apologize for it with resonant, serene cries as I approach mother scarecrow. I am only out here to change her blouse and paint her sticks. Kneeling, I chew at the veins in my wrist and dab my fingers into the wet wound. “Just for you, mama.” I whisper as I paint her arms. “My own blood, my own paint. I’d give you my heart too if there was one to give.” A breeze surprises her posture and makes her body creak. Her hay makes an eerie noise, and her stony eyes throb my heart with an ugly thrill. 

I remove her lavender blouse and dress her in a mustard one with azure flowers on it. The crows chase the old blouse as I toss it high into the air. I am jealous of the colorful leaves that cling to the distance behind my mother. Why can’t I be that lovely, that dramatic in appearance? Why must I have black, unkempt hair and malevolent blue eyes? “Ah.” I sigh, my body sagging towards the ground. “So hideous. I need you, mother. You shouldn’t have sliced your arteries. You shouldn’t have bled all over me and left me to mourn the scarecrow I have made out of your remains.” I look up. Something has touched my face. Mother is stroking my cheek bone and rubbing my eye lashes. But she is breaking. Her tree limb arms are chipping as they admire my face, and there is a miserable moaning coming from her button mouth.

I rise, frantic, desperate. I wrap my arms around her and weep. “But tell me I have not made a monster of you!” I sadly whine. A crow screeches so loud that I fall backwards in alarm, and when I search to see what’s the matter, I see a group of crows fighting over my mother’s old lavender blouse. My mother abruptly slaps me, and I become so sensitive that I do not rise again to beg for her compassion. I lay in the cold, coarse grass and have visions of my mother the night she set her blood free. Maybe I shouldn’t have changed her blouse I think. Maybe I should have buried her beneath a tree.
 
--
Ashlie Allen’s work has been published in The East Coast Literary Review, The Squawk Back, The Burningword Literary Journal, The Crab Fat and Conclave: A Journal of Character. She writes fiction and poetry. She also has plans to do photography.

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  • Home
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  • Issue #27 Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Art Spring 2024 >
      • Kristina Erny Spring 2024
      • Luiza Maia Spring 2024
      • Christy Lee Rogers Spring 2024
      • Erika Lynet Salvador Spring 2024
      • Marsha Solomon Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Poetry Spring 2024 >
      • Terry Belew Spring 2024
      • Dustin Brookshire​ & Diamond Forde Spring 2024 Spring 2024
      • Dustin Brookshire​ & Caridad Moro-Gronlier Spring 2024 Spring 2024
      • Charlie Coleman Spring 2024
      • Isabelle Doyle Spring 2024
      • Reyzl Grace Spring 2024
      • Kelly Gray Spring 2024
      • Meredith Herndon Spring 2024
      • Mina Khan Spring 2024
      • Anoushka Kumar Spring 2024
      • Cate Latimer Spring 2024
      • BEE LB Spring 2024
      • Grace Marie Liu​ Spring 2024
      • Sarah Mills Spring 2024
      • Faisal Mohyuddin 2024
      • Marcus Myers Spring 2024
      • Mike Puican Spring 2024
      • Sarah Sorensen Spring 2024
      • Lynne Thompson Spring 2024
      • Natalie Tombasco Spring 2024
      • Alexandra van de Kamp Spring 2024
      • Donna Vorreyer Spring 2024
    • Fiction #27 Spring 2024 >
      • Bryan Betancur Spring 2024
      • Karen George Spring 2024
      • Raja'a Khalid Spring 2024
      • Riley Manning Spring 2024
      • Adina Polatsek Spring 2024
      • Beth Sherman Spring 2024
    • Nonfiction #27 Spring 2024 >
      • Liza Olson Spring 2024
  • Issue #28 Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Art Fall 2024 >
      • Eric Calloway Fall 2024
      • Matthew Fertel Fall 2024
      • JooLee Kang Fall 2024
      • Jian Kim Fall 2024
      • Robb Kunz Fall 2024
      • Sean Layh Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Poetry Fall 2024 >
      • Jodi Balas Fall 2024
      • Clayre Benzadón Fall 2024
      • Catherine Broadwall Fall 2024
      • Sara Burge Fall 2024
      • Judith Chalmer Fall 2024
      • Stephanie Choi Fall 2024
      • Sarah Jack Fall 2024
      • Jen Karetnick Fall 2024
      • Ae Hee Lee Fall 2024
      • Svetlana Litvinchuk Fall 2024
      • Mary Lou Buschi Fall 2024
      • Angie Macri Fall 2024
      • Gary McDowell Fall 2024
      • Sam Moe Fall 2024
      • Camille Newsom Fall 2024
      • Elizabeth O'Connell- Thompson Fall 2024
      • Olatunde Osinaike Fall 2024
      • Jessica Pierce Fall 2024
      • Diane Raptosh Fall 2024
      • Isaac Richards Fall 2024
      • Robyn Schelenz Fall 2024
      • Christopher Shipman Fall 2024
      • Alex Tretbar Fall 2024
      • Ruth Williams Fall 2024
      • Shannon K. Winston Fall 2024
      • Wendy Wisner Fall 2024
      • Anne Gerard Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Fiction Fall 2024 >
      • J​oe Baumann Fall 2024
      • ​Morganne Howell Fall 2024
      • Matt Paczkowski Fall 2024
      • Ryan Peed Fall 2024
      • Gabriella Pitts Fall 2024
      • James Sullivan Fall 2024
  • Issue #29 Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Art Spring 2025 >
      • Irina Greciuhina Spring 2025
      • Jesse Howard Spring 2025
      • Paul Simmons Spring 2025
      • Marsha Solomon Spring 2025
      • Elzbieta Zdunek Spring 2025
      • Na Yoon Amelia Cha-Ryu Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Poetry Spring 2025 >
      • Deborah Bacharach Spring 2025
      • Diego Báez Spring 2025
      • Jaswinder Bolina Spring 2025
      • ​Ash Bowen Spring 2025
      • Christian J. Collier Spring 2025
      • ​Shou Jie Eng Spring 2025
      • Sara Fitzpatrick Spring 2025
      • Matthew Gilbert Spring 2025
      • Tammy C. Greenwood Spring 2025
      • Alejandra Hernández ​Spring 2025
      • Ben Kline ​Spring 2025
      • ​David Moolten Spring 2025
      • ​Tamer Mostafa Spring 2025
      • ​Rongfei Mu Spring 2025
      • Cynthia Neely Spring 2025
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2025
      • ​Bleah Patterson Spring 2025
      • ​M.A. Scott Spring 2025
      • ​Liam Strong ​ Spring 2025
      • Alexandra van de Kamp Spring 2025
      • ​Cassandra Whitaker Spring 2025
      • Angelique Zobitz Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Fiction Spring 2025 >
      • Vanessa Blakeslee Spring 2025
      • K. J. Coyle Spring 2025
      • Meredith MacLeod Davidson Spring 2025
      • Jessica Mosher Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Nonfiction Spring 2025 >
      • JM Huscher Spring 2025
      • Qurrat ul Ain Raza Abbas Spring 2025