confessions

by John Jeffire

He cannot not lift his eyes. 

How long?

Confession or denial?  The seconds grow heavy.  Something in her whispers cause the least pain.  She looks at him as he looks out the kitchen window into the evening darkness.  She does not think of whose pain she would be easing.

Two months. 

He winces.  Suspicions validated.  An easing like the quick nothingness of anesthetic slides inside him. 

She turns from him, looks away, out the kitchen window, into the evening’s dark nothing. 

Someone would speak next.

Who?

Photo of John Jeffire

BIO: John Jeffire was born in Detroit.  In 2005, his novel Motown Burning was named Grand Prize Winner in the Mount Arrowsmith Novel Competition and in 2007 it won a Gold Medal for Regional Fiction in the Independent Publishing Awards.  Speaking of Motown Burning, former chair of the Pulitzer Jury Philip F. O'Connor said, “It works. I don't often say that, but it has a drive and integrity that gives it credible life....I find a novel with heart.” In 2009, Andra Milacca included Motown Burning in her list of “Six Savory Novels Set in Detroit” along with works by Elmore Leonard, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jeffrey Eugenides.  His first book of poetry, Stone + Fist + Brick + Bone, was nominated for a Michigan Notable Book Award in 2009.  Former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine called the book “a terrific one for our city.”  His short story “Boss” appeared in Coolest American Stories 2022, which won the International Book Awards Prize for Fiction Anthologies.  In 2022, his novel River Rouge won the American Writing Awards for Legacy Fiction.