Each month, I will be posting excerpts from my memoir-in-essay, Persephone’s Children. I hope my work vibes with you.

“When you left your second husband, it had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Your mother had said H was only using you, that he didn’t care about you, so you married him to prove her wrong. You knew before you became pregnant with your third child that being with H was a bad idea. You knew before he made one of your daughters kill a field mouse — one she had captured with a no-kill trap and wanted to keep for a pet — with a rock. You knew before he left bruises on your arm and refused to let go of you during an argument. You knew before the name-calling. You knew before he said that the baby was trying to manipulate him with her crying. You knew before he began his hermitage into a darkened mood within the dimly lit rec room in your basement. You knew before he sat mesmerized in front of the television, watching the O.J. Simpson trial for hours on end.

___ from Revolving Doors

Persephone’s Children will be launched October 12, 2021 with Dundurn Press. https://www.dundurn.com/books/Persephones-Children