PseudoPod 121: Blood, Snow, and Sparrows
Blood, Snow, and Sparrows
By Joshua Alan Doetsch
Desdemona used to trace the stars with her finger, connecting the dots, naming her own constellations.
I call upon her name.
Desdemona.
I call her name when I want to remember.
Desdemona — who gave me thirty-one birthdays when I had none. Desdemona — who laughed and made snow angels on rooftops because the snow there was cleanest, the closest to Heaven. Desdemona — who made an angel of snow and blood in the dirty street on the day I lost her.
I remember this, now, as Zeek struggles in my arms, anger and fear evacuating his body in crimson spurts, and my smile dislocates my jaw. Zeek with the shroud-eye, one eye glaucoma clouded, said it was his evil eye, said he could hex a body with a stare, cast a pestilence. But, see, I knew better. I knew it was Zeek’s dirty needles that killed the kids. And the night collapses with primate shrieks as Zeek tries to lift his bloody gun and . . .
Freeze.
Too far.
About the Author
About the Narrator
Ben Phillips

Ben Phillips is a programmer and musician living in New Orleans. He was a chief editor of Pseudopod from 2006-2010.
