Unravel

                   © Larissa Strunowa 

Back home, back where we came from originally, the word for “trouble” has both a masculine and feminine form.The literal translation would probably be “unravel”, but trouble is what it means.

These days the masculine is for big problems, and the feminine for smaller ones.

Back then it was to distinguish between the troubles of men, and those of women.

That spring day when my Grandmother cried out the masculine form and smashed a dish, 

then threw another and began to cry; we knew, my sisters and I, that our Father would not be returning from the war.

-by Doug Mathewson

Doug Mathewson has rejected the advice “write what you know” since he knows nothing. Most recently his work has appeared in The Boston Literary Magazine, Right Hand Pointing, Cloud City Press, Postcards Prose & Poems, riverbabble, and Jersey Devil.  He is senior editor of Blink-Ink and runs Special Ops. for Ms. Kitty Wang.

Painting Courtesy:  Larissa Strunowa

Larissa Strunowa was born in 1960 in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Soviet Union.  She  studied painting and stage design in Moscow, and has been living and working in Germany since 1995. She is a member of the Artists Union of Rendsburg-Eckernförde. She did exhibitions all over the world.