Raspberry Hives

Raspberry Hives The ancient man with raspberry hives on his cheeks since childhood will live alone no longer. He will marry, he says, the first woman who’ll have him. Till now he has wanted to die as he’s lived, alone in his room with the radio playing, the water in the bathtub dripping. The drone of hours, however, has become the drone of years and the ancient man with raspberry hives on his cheeks since childhood fears death will convert his hives into pocks, take his body but reject his soul. Now he believes if he weds the first woman who’ll have him death will have reason, for the first time, to do the job right. Donal Mahoney