Short Narratives

A short film based on the beautiful, haunting poem "Fugue for a Drowned Girl" by James Galvin. Read by Josephine Rowe. Special thanks to the Gordon family for letting me film on their ranch.

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Film by Julian Pham.

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Fugue for a Drowned Girl
(by James Galvin)

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It is the time of evening that promises miracles to anyone who will believe them. People come out to their porches to see what it’s like disappearing. Without regret they move around to the other side. Animals come down to water. The time of evening when trees on the edge of the forest might step into the clearing. Riverstones rub together with a sound like the turning of locks, or bells, held tightly in both hands.

 

The wind comes up from the pasture as if looking for someone or thinking of the sea. Shadows of clouds ascend the canyon walls: huge trees growing hundreds of feet and disappearing in smoke. The wind has searched the riverbed down to the coast. It has returned with its arms full of branches.

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Each night the sun goes down looking more and more like the moon. Each night the sound of bells moving away. Each night the moon comes up looking more and more like the only way out. Surely no one suspects her weeping. No one suspects her sadness as she thinks of the smallness of the sea, or of cattle returning from pasture. There are rows of glass jars filled with moonlight and the sound of bells approaching.

 

Without encouragement, without being asked, a little blood has joined the water. Children rush into the schoolyard. Late sunlight fills the high clouds. Surely no one suspects her weeping. The river looks the same. People drink it and bathe in it. They comb it into their hair. Her flesh by now is the color of silt. Her bones might be willow sticks. Fish swim into her hair. One by one the lights in her nails go out.