The Bull

Ron Carlson

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When they led me
into the China Shop
I didn’t mind,
though it was a bright place
and the wooden floor creaked.
But the way they watched,
smirking at the windows
filled my bull’s heart
with a sadness
so large and fragile
you could have cracked it
with a whisper.

 

Art by Evie Lovett

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Ron Carlson is the award-winning author of four story collections and five novels, most recently RETURN TO OAKPINE. His fiction has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, Playboy, and GQ, and has been featured on NPR’s This American Life and Selected Shorts as well as in Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories.

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Published
Categorized as Poetry

By Miciah Bay Gault

Miciah Bay Gault is the editor of Hunger Mountain at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She's also a writer, and her fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Sun Magazine, The Southern Review, and other fine journals. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont with her husband and children.