Listen to Chloe Honum read her piece:
I have learned that to be in shock is a kind of mercy. I stayed there a long time. One winter, I was a preschool teacher. At recess, the children would pick things up and bring them to me as gifts. A pebble, a piece of bark, a dirty feather. Often the child would say, I got this for you. As in I have come back from a journey. As in I remembered. I learned the question who wants a story is always welcomed. The days were short. It was snowing.
Chloe Honum was raised in Auckland, New Zealand. She is the recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship and winner of The Missouri Review’s Audio Contest in Poetry. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. Find her online at www.chloehonum.com.