Shelagh Powers Johnson

Shelagh Powers Johnson teaches English and Creative Writing at Bowie State University and is the faculty editor of the university’s literary magazine, The Torch. She received her MFA in Fiction from American University and is currently working on a PhD in English and Creative Writing. Her work has previously appeared in the Portland Review, Night Train, the Grace and Gravity Anthologies, and Ghost Parachute, among others. Her debut short story collection, A History of Existing Life, is coming out this August. You can view her TEDxTalk, “Creative Writing: A Transformational Practice,” on YouTube and find her at www.shelaghjohnson.com.

When We Were Wild

Part Two
It was not the sort of story that could stay hidden in a small town. People in Florence paid attention to everyone else’s details: a car missing from a driveway in the early morning hours, a skipped shift at work, one less body tucked into the pew on Sunday morning. This was how the people of Florence governed themselves: with the understanding that there was no such thing as a secret.

When We Were Wild

Part One
The memory is barely a memory. The night is a wound healed over, skin knit back together until it’s almost eerily smooth—a silky stretch of scar tissue betraying its otherness. It’s flashes of light cutting through trees, hot salt on my tongue, gurneys bumping over the curb and sliding into the backs of ambulances. It’s needles stabbing flesh, hands examining every inch of me, searching for answers.
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