Romance
Lucas Southworth


Last year, when I came to your door, you shook your head and let me in. I sprawled on your couch as you settled in the armchair on the other side of the room. You ignored me and read from a giant book, spread across your lap. Eventually you glanced up.

Do people realize there isn't love anymore? you asked.

Do they care? I said.

You tapped at the page on your knees. Shakespeare, you told me. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

No, I answered. Please.

You chuckled.

I let out a dramatic sigh.

Romance was over a long time ago, I insisted.

I was joking and I thought you would laugh, but your gaze slithered across another line of poetry. You said: That might be true.






Lucas Southworth's collection of stories, EVERYONE HERE HAS A GUN, won the Grace Paley Prize and will be published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2013.

Read more of his work in the archive.

Detail of drawing on main page courtesy of Andrea Joseph.







W i g l e a f               09-21-12                                [home]