flashquake Editor's Pick — Vanitha Sankaran

A House on Baltic
by Timothy Russell

This piece caught my eye because it took a familiar yet undefined image and made me feel nostalgic about it. That's powerful writing.

Originally appeared in River City, a magazine published by the University of Memphis, and subsequently in the magazine Common Ground.

A house in the purple
neighborhood, on Baltic, say,
hunkered under hulking
mill buildings rising behind it
and exhausted steam clouds
roiling higher still,
was never worth much,
but it could be a start
in the right direction —
although one-way streets
leading nowhere and back
littered the whole plat —
and would afford
nearly adequate shelter,
wisteria clinging
to the bony trellis
at the south end
of the front porch
giving off a whiff of solace
from time to time,
or the cherry tree in the backyard
shivering now and then
with some rumor of happiness
only drab flitting sparrows
would ever know anything about,
because $200 lost or gained,
either way, was always a fortune.

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