Unfinished Canyons

Every two weeks or so I am publishing an essay from an emerging writer. This week, we are publishing “Unfinished Canyons” by Chelsey Reid. Chelsey is a Kentucky-based writer whose work explores public health, harm reduction, and connection. Her previous work includes, “He Is Survived By His Sister” published by the Bitter Southerner and “It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Housing” in Testament: A Rural Anthology from Backwoods Literary Press. She spends as much time as possible outside with her dogs, one of which is a basset hound mix so terribly behaved that they are perfect.Subscribe nowSeveral miles into our hike, the early afternoon light bounces off the canyon walls, illuminating everything around me. While I’m scrambling over rocks, an opaque ripple in the sand, a tear in time, snags my gaze. Paused study reveals the faint edge of a shadow flagging against the ground. Reaching for the undeniable blip, my fingertips connect with a pottery fragment. She is resting weathered side up, as…