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Heather Sullivan’s work has appeared in numerous print and online journals, most recently Chiron Review, Paper and Ink Literary Zine and Trailer Park Quarterly. Her debut collection, Waiting for an Answer (Nixes Mate Books 2017), is available both through the publisher and Amazon. She is also the co-editor at Live Nude Poems. She and novelist Rusty Barnes live with their family in the area.

Heather Sullivan

Rebel

Aside from my last name, my father didn’t
give me much of an inheritance.
He parceled out a strong temper, a
profound appreciation of vodka,
the unfailing knowledge that
all crushing love songs were written
for me alone to understand and
a fascination with the motorcycle
in the garage that I wasn’t allowed to
touch, my mother’s constant refrain of
crushing death always in my ear.
In my thirties, I decided it was time
to get my bike license, check off that box.
Again in my ear, she wondered aloud
about how the children would function
after I had slid under a tractor trailer,
pondered why I loved her so little
to do something so stupid.
I got the license anyway, but
pregnancy postponed my purchase.
Then my mother died. A year later,
I bought a used Honda Rebel from
a little old lady who couldn’t ride anymore.
I took it around the block a couple times,
let my kids sit on it in the driveway.
There’s no thrill in it anymore,
so it sits in the basement, and I stroke
the seat when I go down to get the laundry.

— Heather Sullivan

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