Marvin Shackelford

My Daughter, They’ll line you up with flags and rifles, swords depending on the branch, but you can’t love a man in uniform until he’s out of it. You’re not his mother. You’re not Jesus. Just throw your hands up. …

Phyllis, I ain’t forgot what you said to your daughter the day I married her. I’m a day out of the tank and somewhere in South Dakota. The girls at the gas station looked at me like I’m crazy when …

The rain rolls from the clogged gutters. I wish I’d drank the last of that whiskey squirreled away with the cooking oil, the big pot for potatoes, the cookie sheets. The hinge on one of the upper cabinets fell apart, …