Both fond and traumatic memories coexist in my static eight-year self. I spend decades collecting markers of your existence. All things September, the month of your birth. Mid-century décor, each piece a thrift store find. Coins – relics from your year of expiration. I am the curator of an abbreviated life.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Susan R. Barclay makes persistent attempts at witticism and stories; sometimes she is successful. Her works have appeared/are forthcoming, in the The Blue Nib, Vine Street Press, Defuncted Journal, Write Time, Paragraph Planet, Workers Write, and the 42 Stories Anthology.