Karen Pierce Gonzalez
A Summoning
How careful he was, all the years that he lived there.
Double-glazed windows. Compact boxwood hedges.
Washable fabrics. Narrow-striped ties.
Now a Realtor is the person who visits, picks up the mail. Throws her keys
on the table, alongside a broken triskelion, the ornament that fell
from the hood of someone’s Mercedes. She pins mistletoe
over the door — perhaps that’s what did it. On the last day
of the year, a neighbor dials the owner. His roof
has been sprouting. It’s matted and grassy, feathered with lupine
and leopardbane. Hasn’t the HOA complained? They liked him,
always had; but his new topiary, that Russian wolfhound,
it frightens the joggers, it growls and snaps.
Mr. laughs. Topiary?
Twenty minutes, and Mr. is parking. His driveway seethes
with a torrent of snakes. Side to side the house
jostles and heaves on its moorings, straining against the anchoring dirt.
It pries loose bony feet with four scaly toes – twisted, clawed feet
like those carved long ago on gargoyles and bathtubs, gothic feet
that lurked in parlors, underneath overstuffed chairs. His house shivers,
unsteady, top-heavy. It struggles to stand, as it flexes and stretches
its raw bantam legs, testing its strength, like a foal.
K. Roberts is a non-fiction writer, poet and artist whose work frequently addresses ecology and social change. Roberts is also a first reader in fiction at Nunum magazine.
At home in Northern California, Karen Pierce Gonzalez is a mixed-media assemblage artist. Her work has been shown at Truckenbrod Gallery (Oregon), Santa Rosa Arts Center, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, TINY GALLERIES, Virtual Art in the Park and other places. Each piece is a conversation with tree bark, branches, roots, chalk/oil pastels, fibers, found materials and, when lucky (really lucky), salmon leather. Website: karenpiercegonzalez.blogspot.com.