At an early age, Doris developed a fearful obsession with the dead. It began when her parents took her to the morgue to stare at corpses. The city arranged unclaimed bodies in a glass case, hoping someone might identify them. And take them away.

To an eight-year-old girl this freak show was something more than disturbing. Even though these men women and children were fully clothed, skin sagged away from jawbones. Finger flesh began to dissolve into powder. Cheekbones rose through wrinkles. Doris was thankful for only one thing: their eyes were closed.

The wax museum was one thing, but this? Why was no one able to discern a reason for her nightmares for years after?

When she finished high school, she took a job at a crematorium and grew thankful for fire.

Malcolm Glass

is the author of sixteen books of poetry and nonfiction, published over the past 70 years. His poetry, plays, and short stories have appeared in many literary journals and magazines, including Poetry, Prairie Schooner, The Rockvale Review, The Sewanee Review, Waterwheel Review, and The Write Launch. In 2018, Finishing Line Press published his chapbook of poems Mirrors, Myths, and Dreams; and in late 2024, they released his triple-genre collection of poems, stories, and plays, Her Infinite Variety.

Glass is also an artist and photographer, with artworks juried into numerous exhibitions and galleries, including Art Fluent, Black Box Gallery, Hilliard Gallery, Nuu Muse Contemporary Art, and Yeiser Art Center. His work has won dozens of awards, from honorable mention to Best of Show.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Malcolm Glass: 19 poems and stories in The Write Launch (from February 2022 to April 2025)

⚡ Four Photographs by Glass in Change Seven (Winter 2023); click on images for larger view.

⚡ Two Photographs by Glass, Book of Tornadoes and Appalachia, in Change Seven (Artwork: Fall 2022)

⚡ Winter Landscape, a poem by Glass in Sheila-Na-Gig (Volume 7.2, Winter 2022)

⚡ Body Scape (see #17 in the image carousel), a photograph by Glass in the 14th Annual Contemporary Figurative Show at the Hilliard Gallery