Catherine Moore

CAMNISH WOMAN

I formed a lump in the turf the size of my shadow. The salivating earth waited to eat bones. Before I expired, I said blessings as my last rites. May the oxen used to haul my body be ridden to death by demons. May a fortnight of darkness in day hours fall, and neither sheep nor shepherds return to their farms. May disease seep this village. May the parents all pass and the children wander free. May a sorceress, found to be earth-cloved and kohl-eyed, slouch into their dreams.

Catherine Moore is the author of Story (Finishing Line Press), 921b Elysian Fields Avenue (Return to Sender) (Kentucky Story Press, 2015), and Wetlands (dancing girl press, 2016). Her fiction has appeared in Tahoma Literary Review, Six Little Things, Illinois Wesleyan University Press, Stymie Magazine, Indianola Review, and in various anthologies. Her work was included in The Best Small Fictions of 2015. Catherine lives in the Nashville area where she enjoys a thriving writer's community and was awarded a MetroArts grant. Catherine earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Tampa and she currently teaches English at a community college. Previously, she served as an editor at the Tampa Review Online and at Toe Good Poetry.