When I was 16 I hit an animal with my car.
It was a Kia Sephia. They don’t make them anymore.
The car, not the thing I hit, which was a raccoon.
Still make those.
It was late, and I was coming home from a closing shift.
I worked at a Hot Topic at the Great Northern Mall.
We had to reorganize all the shelves that night.
Which is why I was 16 and driving myself home at eleven pm.
Never a good idea.
There weren’t any streetlights which is probably why
I didn’t see the racoon until it was too late.
All of these things are just excuses. Doesn’t make it any better that
I didn’t stop to see if the thing was dead or just banged up.
But it was probably dead because I was doing almost sixty.
It’s the only animal I’ve ever killed
other than a few spiders when I was young, before I knew any better.
I just thought maybe you should know that about me.
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Shaemus Spencer is a trans/queer writer and animator. They live in Thomas, West Virginia.
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image: MM Kaufman
Rejection Letters 