The House of Grizzlies

by Trish Saunders

Last night, after every guest had left, every beer glass was washed, dried and shelved, he turned to me, said, “This life is killing me. I want my small-boy Sundays back, kicking the church pew in front of me, practicing piano scales, working on my curveball. I am still the boy my father used to wrestle, the boy my mother packed meatball sandwiches for — it’s this house that’s changed." But all I had for him was, Did you know grizzlies are returning to the North Cascades? We’ll go hiking tomorrow, maybe see some. Although we both know grizzlies haven’t been seen in the North Cascades for a very long time, and we spend our Sundays in deck chairs.

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Trish Saunders, who lives in Seattle, has poems and short fiction published in Chiron Review, The Rye Whiskey Review, The Galway Review, and Six Sentences, among others.