:: This story was runner up in the National Undergraduate Writing Awards in 2002. ::

:: An excerpt from the short story Elysium ::

'inside your skin       of –stocking-laddered-silk you rock        rock yourself to sleep you swing        backward then forward over the toes        right at the edge of the field you sing       silently        you sing me a song with your lonely rocking

earlier in the sun storm you strayed       strayed as far away as the compass-of-your-shadow would take you

and now here you are crouching and rocking       in the grass now wet from the rain that is becoming       and the wind cuts toward you from across the field'