‘Smote, or When I Find I Cannot Kiss You In Front Of A Print By Bridget Riley’ by Eley Williams

I almost want to write nothing about this story since I think it’s best experienced for oneself. I will say that I have never forgotten this line:

and you stark me

and I am strobe-hearted

Reading ‘Smote’ for the first time made me rethink everything I thought I knew about words and how to use them.

Collected in Attrib. and Other Stories, Influx Press, 2017. First published online in The White Review, 2015. Read it here