Explain the ocean to your summer job
When you work
at a used book
shop you learn
that the tarot
cards are kept
behind the counter.
It is “understood”
that stealing
preserves a deck’s
magic and, well,
lets just say
this fact is like
selling the rain
to Oregon.
A paying customer
tells you
no one worth
their sea salt in card
reading would risk
the karma attached
to theft and you
are left behind
the counter, reminded
that a steelhead
is nothing but a trout
that goes to sea—
the cards can
predict this but
the ocean
keeps shuffling.
~
Ashley Ruderman grew up in Eugene, Oregon, and attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. She left the Pacific Northwest to earn her MA in English Literature at the University of Kentucky. Prior to The Twenty, she had no Kentucky roots. She now considers herself lucky to be a member of such a vibrant writing community.
~
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