October and New Life
by John Sheirer
Dusk slips unnoticed into evening, then starless darkness he doesn’t expect much from. A lone jogger, perhaps, the familiar scrape-scrape-scrape of rubber on sidewalk. Then a cat howling somewhere, or a baby, sounds almost interchangeable in poor light. Inside, his life the same for years, pictures hung to cover empty spaces. His own cat stretching orange and padding up his chest, hummingbird purr, blurred face an inch from his. Just for a moment, it’s October and new life is here, tumbling clumsy through turning maple leaves, hard to see in this darkness, these sounds, this rain, just beginning. Just beginning.
Bio: John Sheirer lives in Western Massachusetts and is in his 30th year of teaching at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut. His latest book is the award-winning short story collection, Stumbling Through Adulthood: Linked Stories. Find him at JohnSheirer.com.
