THE SUN'S INADEQUATE ARMS Kevin Dunn

Behind an incredible cover of clouds the moon was starting to bleed all over your shadow. On the other side of the world the sun was smiling, waving it's short, inadequate arms. /// We made plans to see each other but I knew I couldn't hold you to them. I can't hold anything without it melting away. /// Once in the rain smoke poured from your hair, so I left for a couple days and returned with all the dust of home. /// My hands are the size of the sun's hands and when your hands are the size of the sun's hands you get used to not locking your doors and not unlocking them. /// I was late because of the water, she said but she meant the rain. It had been raining all day, so that must have been what she meant. She really should have planned accordingly. It had been raining all day. /// It's cloudy and bright and sometimes things just don't work out. How else are you supposed to tell someone you don't think they're beautiful? I think you're beautiful. Later on, a footprint in the mud will suggest that a one-legged deer just took its first step. /// Dust is a well-designed product because it makes you want to get rid of it. I'm so happy you got that picture of me. The one where I'm bleeding all over everything. I'm usually covered in dust, so it was nice for a change to be covered in something else. And something so colorful! It was like a costume. This will be a nice way to remember it. /// By the time we realized that apples are actually made of poison, we had already captured and killed

all of our witches. Now that they're all gone we have no one to blame for all the missing children, for the failing eye of newt industry, or for all of our poisoned princesses but ourselves. /// The sun is always so sarcastic. /// It's gotten so damp that it's become impossible to turn the pages of the only book in the entire world. /// The only white pullet sits on the roof of her house next to an old wheelbarrow, wet from the rain, thinking, This moment is significant in a distinctly American kind of way, but what do I know of the country? And how did I learn the language? A silence falls upon the orchard as the bird considers her place in the idiom, that is, what she depends on and what depends on her. /// The only person I've ever seen is you, so yes, I'm sure I want you to cut my hair. I don't even own a mirror, you know that. We talked about it on our first date, or have you already forgotten? You told me that you thought I was beautiful and I told you that you were the only person I've ever seen, that I couldn't really make a fair judgment, that I thought you were beautiful. /// When the remains of the biggest dinosaur ever were unearthed in Argentina, they left behind a hole as big as the biggest dinosaur ever. My remains will never be found, but you'd know right where to look. /// You tempted the killer but he wasn't bluffing, and now, covered in blood, the other hostages blame you.