Cayla Garman

What Happens in Small Towns

A deer is left to rot
on main street for weeks.
An old fisherman whips
his truck around it
on his way to a smoke
at the old dock, bitter
from his morning whiskey
and the gradual loss
of his fishing harvest
to the poison leeching
from the mines.
He spots a young girl
wading in the shallows,
her old t-shirt creek-slicked
to her body, breasts
just starting to bloom
like the algae lapping
against the rusted dock.
When his buddies show up,
he gets them to join in,
gawking between puffs,
smirking like copperheads.
When she tells her parents,
they scold her, remind her
of the hard times wearing
on everyone. On Sunday,
he sees her at town mass,
sits in the pew right behind,
croons the hymns real low.
The priest leads everyone
in a prayer for the dry season
to come early, the recent floods
overwhelming the crop fields.
A farmer in the back turns a sob
into a cough, blames the smog
from the factory a county over.
During communion, the fishermen
gets right behind the young girl,
whispering predictions
about what's under her church dress,
catching his buddies’ shining eyes
strewn around the pews,
sly smiles as they digest
their wafers of christ.
By the time the girl reaches the front,
her eyes are glazed and cold,
her mind already elsewhere,
her body so still and lifeless
a single hand on her shoulder
would send her to the floor
in a heap, another broken thing
for the townspeople to serve around.
The men go to the bar right after
and won't return to their homes
until after dark. Some teenagers
rip down main on dirt bikes
and hit the deer over and over
just for fun. A neighbor
thinks to call the police
but recognizes the sheriff's son.
It storms again, rain pouring,
and the quick-water takes
another piece of dock with it,
the metal frame not even
groaning, just giving in
to the current.

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Cayla Garman is a graduate of Penn State Harrisburg. Her work can be found in or is forthcoming at One Art, The Milk House and From the Fallout Shelter.