Robert L. Penick

2 months ago | kentuckymonthly.com | Robert L. Penick

One day you find your first true love in an online obituary and you realize she hasn’t been gone these past forty years. She has been beneath your skin, under the tattoos, scars and scabs that you thought were forgetting. She dwelt, like a cicada, under your feet and beneath your delible heart, waiting for an anniversary to split the wounds anew. Now you are rewound, back four decades, beneath a cold Kentucky moon. Everything has changed, after all these years.

Aug 2, 2024 | thebookendsreview.com | Robert L. Penick |’s Note |Jordan Blum

Kathy’s had this key on her ring for twenty years now. It hasn’t unlocked anything in a very long time. Very occasionally, she will cull the set, when it gets too heavy, too jangly, or makes an ugly bulge in her clutch bag or her pocket. Picking through, she’ll remove the key from her bike lock, the one that didn’t keep her bike from being stolen. Another time she’ll sacrifice to the trash her parent’s house key, since they fled Buffalo, New York,  for the horrors of south Florida.