INTO TERRIBLE LIGHT by DAVID RUTSCHMAN
224 pages, soft cover, perfect-bound, 5.5" x 7.5"
FATHERHOOD
I was teaching my son to throw stones into the water when he became a stone and I threw him in the water.
“My boy, my darling boy,” I called and I hurled myself after him and I became a stone and we tumbled down to the silent muddy bottom.
We were together then, two smooth stones.
“Terrorists?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“And cancer?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“And the decline of turtle populations, and the skies filled with bombs?” he asked and I said, “Yeah, I know, I know, of course, but—”
“What will become of us?” he cried and I said, “We’ll be all right, I think,” and tried to explain something about courage and tenderness and human dignity, but he was not reassured. A fish flashed above us in the murky water, its belly a streak of silver.
“Can you keep me safe?” he asked quietly, and I hesitated just a beat before I said “Yes,” and by then he was already onto me—my sharp kid—and though I tried and tried, I could not reach out to him, being a stone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Rutschman is a Soto Zen priest and hospice grief counselor. His work has appeared in Forklift, Ohio; Kenyon Review Online; The Massachusetts Review; The Sun; Waxwing; Witness; and elsewhere. He lives in California with his wife and two young children. This is his first book.
FORKLIFT BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2017
Copyright © 2017 by David Rutschman.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-9995931-4-1
Edited by Matt Hart
Book design & cover photo by Eric Appleby