How to Be a Cop’s Wife by Lindsey Warner 1. Stay to the side as thick boots pound through rooms bullet clicks into chamber radio blares “42- Edward-29 copy.” Pray everything is charged no keys are lost car battery isn’t dead shirt was white enough. 2. Stand for your goodbye kiss check the pins are all on straight breathe out as tires squeal around the corner. In the evening, listen to faraway sirens as you fold clothes. Slide open a drawer and hear bullets click into each other, run your fingers under extra silver buttons and loose change smell the acrid stench of metal polish. There. The sock’s match hidden beneath a box of condoms. Bring the socks together, fold the tops and leave them there, next to the soft skin of folded paper: a drawing by the other woman’s child. ...
Flying Island is the Online Literary Journal of the Indiana Writers Center, accepting submissions from Midwest residents and those with significant ties to the Midwest.