Dots

by Erica Trabold

Winner of the 2020 Chapbook Contest, Edition of 100

excerpt:

Once, I had a polka-dotted frame, but I never called it that.

I called it my body.

I called it my skin.

Freckles jumped from my cheekbones, sprouting up and over my shoulders, in the summertime. I wished they looked like that all year. In the colder, busier months they would fade into just another blank page.

The summer, though, took maintenance. I went to the pool every day I could, rode my bike (towel around my neck) through town, down the big hill, around the grain elevator, across and underneath the highway, on the paved bike path to the park.

I got in line—

and waited for the door to open.

Paperback

Published July 8, 2021

Reviews

[Vera Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have learned from Erica’s past writings that I need to reserve quiet time and headspace for whatever journey she takes me on. No distractions, because she gently intertwines ideas and personal stories into something so magically relatable. This little book is one I can see myself going back to easily in the middle of an afternoon. I felt a mix of emotions in connecting the pieces of her stories together and relating them to my own life experience. She is an author capable of gaining my attention right from the start, and I love her descriptions showing her choosing of words carefully. I hope she continues publishing more work and I would be curious about the journey she could create in something even longer as these short stories are never enough!