Issue Twenty-One - Winter 2013

The End of Things

By Robert Joe Stout

So tired she
can barely pull
her suitcase
down the airport

ramp she curses,
says I always
screw up easy
tasks. I nod,

refuse the argument
she wants, load
her luggage
in the van, focus

on the highway
ramp. “I’m through,”
she says, “I’ve had
enough.” I nod.

“I need to get you
home,” I say not
knowing what I really
mean, tears

hidden somewhere
deep inside. The road
a blur, I cough
to clear my sight.

Copyright Stout 2012

Robert Joe Stout ’s fiction has appeared in Interim, The New Orleans Review, The South Dakota Review and dozens of other journals. He also has published the novels, Running Out the Hurt, Miss Sally, half a dozen poetry chapbooks and the non-fiction "Why Immigrants Come to America." He lives in Oaxaca, Mexico.

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