The D.H. Memorial at San Cristobal Was a Thing to Do

(Second Runner-Up from Our "What I Did This Summer" Contest)
by Theresa Williams

If you'd taken the road to the D. H. Lawrence Ranch, a magpie would have passed in front of you on the dirt and gravel road, and you would have enjoyed seeing a squirrel perched on top of a dead tree.

Arriving at the ranch, you'd have seen the house owned by the University of New Mexico, the roof, onto which an old black dog trotted, onto which it had defecated...repeatedly.

You'd have walked the zig-zagging path to the shrine, which may or may not hold the ashes of D. H. Lawrence mixed by his lover directly into the cement.

You'd have seen the cement phoenix and noticed that some previous visitor had placed a penny on its right wing.

Oh, you, have you built your Ship of Death?

You'd have seen the couple who came because their daughter had done a paper on D. H. Lawrence in college, the wife looking at the amazing number of dog turds on the roof who said, "Well, at least the poor thing seems well-fed. That's a positive way of looking at it."

And you'd have heard the husband say, "Yes, if you have to look at it."

Theresa Williams' My novel The Secret of Hurricanes was published in 2002 by MacAdam/Cage. It was a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize. Her short fiction has been published in Hunger Mountain, The Sun, Seems, and Sulphur River Literary Review and poems in Paterson, Segue 8, Viet Nam Generation, Comstock Review, Riverwind, and other journals.