{"id":1860,"date":"2021-09-14T14:41:06","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T21:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2024-11-25T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T20:00:08","slug":"duck-duck-goose-by-caitlyn-curran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/duck-duck-goose-by-caitlyn-curran\/","title":{"rendered":"“duck duck goose” by Caitlyn Curran"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Willow<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 83<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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“duck duck goose” by Caitlyn Curran<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Once, Mom got us out. Packed my sister<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and me into the old wood-paneled van.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middle of the night, maybe summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in our pajamas at the park. I remember<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the gazebo lit up from the middle, though I still can\u2019t<\/p>\n\n\n\n

make out Mom\u2019s worried face, or my sister\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

gapped teeth. How memory can shape itself into history:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

middle of the night, maybe summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gazebo lit up. But the gazebo never<\/p>\n\n\n\n

had any lights. Still, I hold this memory like a map:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

once, Mom got us out. Me and my sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We played until morning. I imagine I fell asleep in the car,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and Mom carried me inside, but this wasn\u2019t how it happened:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

middle of the night                 maybe summer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

escape route                            wet grass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It never happened at all\u2014the gazebo never<\/p>\n\n\n\n

had any lights. This memory is a map,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but no one else remembers. Look: once Mom got us out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish tank<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s always been a bullet hole<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in the living room window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engines of flies gather in fists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dad shatters the fishtank,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stumbles to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dad sets up cans in the yard\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

bright lures. We sit in the empty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

spa like a trench,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

old bb gun against my shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a good shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask for a .22 for Christmas. I\u2019m seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He laughs proud when he sees it on the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know water<\/p>\n\n\n\n

spreads like a web. My toes prune,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

picking the fish up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not angry.                                     I didn\u2019t get the gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s always been a bullet hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It spiders out in tics. Flies find their way in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glass is not like water. It cracks or it doesn\u2019t. I pick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the fish up. They flutter in bowls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

until morning.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":23834,"featured_media":1870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37055,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/37055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}