Taddle Creek 10th Anniversary, The Gladstone Hotel

Caucasian woman, late 20s, wearing all black, head of brown, soft unruly curls the perfect accessory to her tidy, tight words.

Dani Couture, three time Taddle Creek contributor, reading "Atonement":

Atonement

On the side of the highway,
in August, on full stomach,
I picked the already thin
blueberry bushes clean.

And for a year afterward
the bears roamed hungry--
picked off campers in crisp red tents
as they were offered up in return.

Clipping, late for work. A few quick sips of espresso warms her belly, toasted rye and jam chilling in her palm of paper towel. The path is straight and timely to the main road but she veers, the concrete giving way to solid soil, the odd crumpled leaf, through a circle of Asian women, quipping away, wide circles rushing morning air to their lungs.

(Read one of my stories for Taddle Creek, "Bunkie.")