Ghoul
You might find one hiding in a hayloft, after the sky has been raining for a time, when the wide pastures look
relieved. It is so afraid of rainbows. Ask me what it does for food. I’ve heard of it robbing posts of their
turtles... It will flip a post turtle over on the shell, and then pick it up—legs kicking heaven, but half speed—
and it will push the crest of the shell into some prepared coals. The turtle will limbo upside down there in the
fire, until the flesh has become a taupe-colored soup. And it will slurp soup of post turtle from the dead hot
shell... Some post turtles can live more than one hundred and fifty years. One hundred and fifty years down
one hell throat. And a time transpires just like that...
Evan Nicholls has work appearing in Passages North, Maudlin House, THRUSH, Pithead Chapel, and Whurk among others. He is from Fauquier County, Virginia. Follow him on Twitter @nicholls_evan. Read more at evannichollswrites.wordpress.com.