Field of Screams
by John Sara
My grandparents build another scarecrow,
hang him in the cornfield and promise he’ll
watch over us.
They’ve gotten forgetful in their old age,
misplace things; never remember why
the scarecrows seem to move at night,
blame it on sleepwalking when I hear
rustling in the corn.
I wake to find one at the dinner table;
joke that he must be part of the family.
When they laugh, I pretend not to notice
the look in their eyes; the way they shift
between me and the cornstalks.
John Sara is a writer from Parma, Ohio. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Ashland University, where he works as an adjunct professor and lead fiction editor for the student-run literary journal The Black Fork Review. His work has been featured in such places as Prairie Margins, Paper Dragon, Blood+Honey, Schlock! Webzine, Cul-de-sac of Blood, and more. You can follow him on Instagram @darkbat616.