His wrists burn as he frantically wriggles his flesh against the binding rope. The first load of soil splatters over him, cold and damp. His nostrils flare as his breaths become short and panicked. Another wad of soil lands on him. He peers up and out of the hole he’s laid in at the moonlight and the man burying him. The man smiles and says, ‘Unlucky day, kid.’ He piles on another clod of dirt.
Paddy Dobson
13th April 2022