Title page from Lesley Clayton’s “Plate Tectonics”
Esopus 10 (Spring 2008)
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New Voices: “Plate Tectonics”
By Lesley Clayton
“Because India is plowing into Eurasia,” she said, propping a pillow up on the window to block the sun coming in. “But India is so much smaller. Won’t Eurasia win?”
He pulled a handful of blankets up from their twists at the foot of the bed.
“Eurasia won’t win.”
“Why not?”
“Because Eurasia isn’t fighting.”
“It’s just sitting there? Being plowed into?”
“Basically.”
Fifth in our series of fiction by previously unpublished authors is this brief, perfectly rendered glimpse of the shifting boundaries between new lovers.
Lesley Clayton studied English at the University of Texas and lives in Austin. “Plate Tectonics” is her first published story.