“Gullywasher” began as a recollection of my father’s term for torrential rain and of my experiences as a boy growing up on a 27-acre peach farm.  Soon after I started writing this, I could feel the love in his voice——and my love for him——as he taught me the craft of repairing a broken levee.  Such love sustains me in a world constantly in need of repair, when life itself is its own gullywasher.

Gary Thomas, a retired English teacher, has been published or accepted for publication in MockingHeart Review, Atticus Review, Monterey Poetry Review, and River Heron Review, and in the anthology More Than Soil, More Than Sky.  A full-length collection, All the Connecting Lights, was released in August 2022 from Finishing Line Press.