SEAN GABLER

The next morning I was in a dead sleep oblivious and unaffected by all the atrocities of the world outside. I felt something slightly damp, and abrasive repeatedly brushing against my cheek. It was enough to stir me from some wonderfully needed slumber, a deep one where nothing and everything happened. This thing butted its…

I said nothing. Not a single plea was uttered. She didn’t come back, at least not for a little while. I looked up at the night sky and squinted, through the apertures between the snowflakes into the blackest sky. The universe expanded as my eyes seemed to click into focus. I saw three distinct stars…

The snow fell hard. It covered everything with it’s frosted beauty. Trepidation fell alongside it as I held Hattie’s hand on the short walk to the car. I thought about how snowflakes were alone and unique, like fingerprints, only these were rarer. Each snowflake was a minuscule hand sculpted seraph, antagonized and expelled from heaven.…

My first name is undeniably German, while my last name was Irish, Flood, had probably been anglicized at some point in our tumultuous history. My father told me I was German. German and Irish but the scales tipped toward Deutsch. I idolized my Vater. That idolatry created a sense of pride about my heritage that…