Author Archive | Leslie Bourke

Water Pipe

Milk House Water

The road split our farm in half, house on one side, barn on the other. Crossing was a dangerous game. Lying in our beds at night, we would often hear the thump of body against machine, soft tissue crushed beneath hard rubber, and we knew some animal had passed to the other side […]

Read more »
Cowboy Boots

Copperhead

An Indian girl drowned in the crook of the river where my sister and I swam when we were children. She was in a canoe and the spring rains were heavy that year. The waters ran high and excited. The girl paddled around the bend in the river and was caught in the rush of […]

Read more »
Welty house

My Mother’s House

I’d like to spend one last night in my mother’s house. There’s work to be done before we put it on the market, so the electricity has not been turned off. The phone has been disconnected, but I’ll have my cell. If I can’t sleep, I can get up and go into the kitchen and […]

Read more »
Old Radio

Hey, Good Lookin’

We heard the news on the radio. The great Hank Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” Hank Williams, had died in the back seat of his car. New Year’s Day, 1953. When Hank’s wife, Audrey, walked into the diner where I worked that night, there were snowflakes on her coat. I still remember that, […]

Read more »