The Rolling by Heather Fowler

The Rolling by Heather Fowler

There is a sweet spot between our bodies. Sometimes, you touch me just the right way, and its like were connected. Its not my bellybutton. There are things we do to get there. This is adulthood.
Were no good at spooning after. I always preferred forks. Jabbing insertions. Spearing things tender.
You moan. To the left, you say. This means you rolling. Its afterwards. Youll be sleeping soon. Im thinking of Carver. How hes the only one to get away with talking about love and naming a story after it so self-indulgently—or OConnor, how everything was love for and fear of the other people around us, even relatives from backwoods digs we knew. Or of Williams, how a gay man got away, for so long, with writing about heterosexual love and was trapped there in prose, long after his real life came out.
You are thinking about razorblades, electricity, morning commutes, what dress Ill be wearing to see your friends in tomorrow night, and will it be short enough?
To the right, I say. This means me rolling. But theres a sweet spot between our bodies—a hanging space—where something undefinable must converge.

Bio: Heather Fowler received her M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University in 1997. She has taught Literature, Writing, or Composition related courses at UCSD, Modesto Junior College, and California State University Stanislaus. Her work was among short-listed stories on the 2009 Story South Million Writers Awards Notable Stories of 2008 list. Among other venues, her stories have recently appeared or are forthcoming from: DOGZPLOT, Up the Staircase Review, The Wrong Tree Review, Feminist Studies, Surreal South 2009, Etchings (AUS), JMWW, Abacot Journal, Night Train, Underground Voices, A cappella Zoo , Trespass (UK), Keyhole, SubLit, and WordRiot. She is the Poetry Editor at Corium Magazine. Her poems have recently been published at The Medulla Review, poetic diversity, Empowerment4Women and INTHEFRAY, as well as having been selected for joint first place in the 2007 Faringdon Online Poetry Competition judged by Professor C. C. Norris, Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University. Her book of magical realism stories, Suspended Heart, is forthcoming from Aqueous Books in late 2010 or early 2011. Please visit her webpage for a linked in full bio, excerpts of novels in progress, and updates at http://www.heatherfowlerwrites.com/

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