Evidence
by Natalie DeVaull-Robichaud
That’s all that’s left of the cheddar. Take what you can and remember there’s not enough for sandwiches anyway – and we haven’t reached Friday yet. Even the dog expects some before she snaps at the fireflies. Remember when we were young and reaching for something elusive, too, in the evenings when there was nowhere to drift unseen — or maybe that was a Sargent painting or maybe that wasn’t you? Hard to know without evidence. It is you now, though — lifting across the years like raised branches budding cloven hooves at the tips in early April — you and a clinking cup of tea. You and the cheeseboard. See our reflections in the dark hospital window when you saw the poster encouraging patients to dine with a loved one by candlelight as part of the process of becoming well? I took a photo because the elderly couple were reaching toward each other across the table in what must have been a circle of light.
Natalie DeVaull-Robichaud lives in CT where she volunteers at a farm animal sanctuary and works in communications at Yale. Prior to Yale, DeVaull-Robichaud taught writing and directed the writing program at Albertus Magnus College. Her writing – mostly flash fiction and prose poetry – has appeared in a number of journals, including Fiction Southeast, Unbroken Journal, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Gramarye. She is the recipient of the Hopwood Award and the Wilda Hearne Flash Fiction Award, and she holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College.