Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Barrier Island

2015; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/thr.2015.0074

1939-9774

Floyd Skloot,

Barrier Island Floyd Skloot (bio) The carousel and bumper cars were longgone. Seidel’s Skee Ball, the five-cent fortunetelling machine, Izzy’s Knishes, the shootinggallery, teenage crooners harmonizingat Waller’s frozen custard stand: I sawthem all vanish when I was still a boy.The three-story concrete watchtowerthat protected us from Nazi submarineswas rubble. I played at dusk in the fieldwhere it fell, walked beams of the bowlingalley that rose in its place. I was gonemyself before it became glass-faced condoswith a horizon view over flattened dunes,before the storm took apart everything timehad left behind. On the news I saw a womanwalk where the boardwalk was now nothingbut pilings. The beach was scattered acrossthe island beneath the glare of morning sun. [End Page 533] Floyd Skloot FLOYD SKLOOT has won three Pushcart Prizes, and his work has been included in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science Writing, The Best Spiritual Writing, and The Best Food Writing annual anthologies. Copyright © 2015 Floyd Skloot