The Hunter's Afterlife

Abstract

The Hunter's Afterlife Virginia Ottley Craighill (bio) Ten bags of decoys nest in the basement;twelve rubber waders, like half-torsos, hangfrom the ceiling; shotguns fill two steel safes;there's a duck call for every breed he knows.His pile of possessions constantly growslike sandbags to hold back the rising flood. Bury him with one of each, a pharaohcrossing to a happy hunting ground, heavenof frigid dawns, duck blinds, deer stands at dusk,where animals come to him without fearwhen he speaks the language he knows by heart,his rubber-coated waders grow webbed, wings spring from his sloped shoulders, or antlers sproutfrom his skull. Forgiven, he has no need of thingsto run with the herd or fly with the flock,and when the sun sets the swamp on fire,he runs faster, ascends higher. Such lightness,father, as you would never know on earth. [End Page 55] Virginia Ottley Craighill Virginia Ottley Craghill's poems have appeared in Think: A Journal of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays; Cumberland River Review; Kalliope; Atlanta Review; Gulf Coast; South Carolina Review; and The Chattahoochee Review, among others. Her essays have been published in The Best American Sports Writing 2018 and The Sewanee Review. She currently lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, where she teaches in the English department at the University of the South. Copyright © 2021 Berea College