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Somewhere on a Desert Highway

by Matthew Schultz

A woman rode her motorcycle along Box Canyon Road off Highway 10 through the midday scorch. There were snakes on the road that moved like heat haze beneath the rust-gold Sun. Here was a largeness that she could not comprehend, expanding unparcelled beyond the full tank of gas lunar-looking and eternal. The woman on the motorcycle peered into her mirror and saw the Moon. It floated in the reflection like a saltwater pearl. She couldn’t take her eyes off of it.

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Matthew Schultz teaches Irish Studies and creative writing at Vassar College. He is the author of two novels: On Coventry and We, The Wanted. His recent flash appears in VERSIFICATION, Sledgehammer, and From the Depths (Haunted Waters Press).