Jessica Pitchford
Originally from Arkansas, Jessica Pitchford is a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at McNeese State University and the PhD Creative Writing Program at Florida State University, where she was editor-in-chief of The Southeast Review. Her fiction has been published in storySouth, New Delta Review, the Arkansas Review, and elsewhere.
Trapping Permit
You see a dead deer roadside and think of him. Last week, your ex-husband called, out of the blue—he does that from time to time—and told you he’d gone on Ebay and bought a skunk to stuff, that because he doesn’t have his trapping permit, he can’t just kill an animal himself. Unless it’s on his property. You think something’s wrong. With him, maybe, but also with you. Because you can’t move on. From him. From the little boy you lost together. And because the stink of preservation is everywhere.
