Tom Painting
Internal Combustion
She needed a way to escape her father, who seethed as she tuned him out in favor of poetry. Not quite doing the trick, she started dating a boy who’d pick her up in his Plymouth Valiant; the one with the slant-six engine and four on the floor.
a sudden gust
fans the wildfire
the heat
About the Author
Tom Painting teaches junior high humanities at The Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia. He facilitates a student bird club and is an associate editor for The Heron’s Nest.