Each year starts with the same goal; 100 rejections. The logic behind it is simple. Rejections mean that you are submitting work. And submitting work broadly helps increase the chances of publication.
I still believe that is true. But this year, I did not write or submit much at all. In 2023, only one of my pieces was published and that’s okay. It’s out in the world in a wonderful home.
In the Treads of Boots
Star*82 Review, Issue 11.2
When I say each house is a country all its own, I mean the oak trees are tied into knots by old resentments and forgotten names. I mean that the fences are bug eaten and pockmarked.
Wire fences sag and stagger between neighbors. I see the tattered edges of flags on porches, iron oxide against the sky, overbaked by the sun.
Thunder shakes the house until the wood beams in the sun, until the foundation cracks. It’s not enough to stop the water reclaiming what the levees took. And this is where memory lies, open in the storm.
Here’s to new goals and added chances. Cheers!
K.M. Crane 