fiction and creative non-fiction from Brennan Quenneville
In his dream, the river is burning and Tauro is dying. He sees flames leaping up from the dry, rotten riverbed - a hellish vision of a flood season gone terribly wrong. Tapirs rush from the valley into the forests as fast as their feet can carry them. Our houses burn. An army of the [...]
That I cannot speak does not mean that I am silent. The pumping heartbeat, the hissing intake of breath, the endless creaking of bones – I do not need a voice to be heard. When I sat, waiting patiently in the blind in the high tree, I did not wait to hear men’s voices – [...]
I'm only telling you this because I have to. They say that telling it helps, that dragging the words out from my insides and into the world will give me some clarity. Or maybe it was lucidity. Or maybe it was both. I don’t remember. But even if I don’t believe them, I suppose I’m [...]
Beneath the midday sun, the smell of sweat and dust filled the air and reminded Aulus of all that he had to lose – his family and his home, tucked neatly into their own small corner of the Seven Hills. He thought of round Caecina and their seven children. This was no place for Caecina. [...]
…and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Acts 2:17 ----- “‘Hace mucho tiempo, cuando sueños aún tenía capacidad...’ I remember the words clearly now, but I still don’t know what they mean.” “Why didn’t you ask Eduardo to translate them [...]
She has always been a strong woman, my mother. She had buried two of her sons before any of this even began; she held me when I wept for their deaths. Dave and I are left. And here we are, supporting her as we can, doing what sons do. He takes her to swim lessons [...]
The woods are never solitary--they are full of whispering, beckoning, friendly life. But the sea is a mighty soul, forever moaning of some great, unshareable sorrow, which shuts it up into itself for all eternity. Lucy Maud Montgomery ----- Prologue Slowly and noiselessly, the candle was burning out. Once, in its death throes, it flashed [...]
Golden light moves with the silken grace of a dancer, across the rolling waves. Sunset. Behind me, amber leaves crown aging trees and the ground slopes ever upward to the distant, snow-capped peaks. I feel the cool, frail blades of grass beneath my bare feet as I sit, my knees held tight to my chest. [...]
In the long days and dreams before all the stars, save one, had blinked their last, a story was told in the lights of the firmament. All the moving worlds, the great and elaborate dance of the celestial bodies, all of these were only pieces – words and phrases – of the timeless tale. The [...]
It was Wednesday. It was Wednesday, and I was running late. The morning had started lethargically and I had looked to the clock hoping to find comfort in my punctuality, but instead the sad, frowning face that read eight-twenty informed me that I had missed my usual bus and would have to hurry in order [...]
Songs & Stories 