There Now

Stacy Boe Miller

I have a son with long black hair. He still asks me sometimes to brush it.

I stand on a stool to make sure I get the tangles on top.

He has another mother in a different country. She’s young

enough to be my child as well. I take time with the brushing, some evenings

make three thick ropes and braid them together. I stare at his shoulders,

the track of his spine. I watch us in the mirror. He’s patient

with me, doesn’t talk while I work through the curls. When I finish

I say, There, and like a thief clutch the brush to my chest.

Stacy Boe Miller is a writer and editor living in north Idaho. Some of her recent work can be found in Mid-American Review, Copper Nickel, and River Teeth’s Beautiful Things. She serves as a reader for Fugue Literary Journal and on the board of High Desert Journal.