Bad Feeling by Ciaran Cooper

Eddie and me found these pink little blind baby mice under a rotten log and we were scared of snakes getting them so we put them in a pile of leaves in the shade but when we came back later they were covered in buzzing yellow jackets. 

At lunch my mom told us you shouldn’t touch wild baby animals because their mothers will smell you on them and leave them to die. 

I wish she told us that before we found those baby raccoons in the barn with their soft fat bellies we couldn’t help rubbing.

Artist’s Statement

My writing tends to center on identity crises within fractured families, the misplaced or marginalized, and mental illness. My work migrates from humor to tragedy, often mingling these two elements as I seek to explore the full depths of the human experience. I often find myself returning to stories about brothers at the moment of discovery of their strengths and limitations in relation to the broader world outside their family structures. I’m fascinated with the stripping away of youthful innocence for deeper insights that often create bittersweet feelings.

Ciaran Cooper’s writing has appeared in Salamander, The Pinch, Fourteen Hills, The Midwest Prairie Review, and Fiction Southeast, among other journals. Cooper holds an MFA from Bennington College. He has won several awards for his writing, The Pinch’s annual fiction contest. He’s also received artist fellowship awards from the Illinois Arts Council and Salem Art Works. For more information, please visit Ciaran’s website.