"Fallow Field," a short work of fiction of no more than 30 lexias, chronicles the breakdown of a marriage. Mythic in quality, it is set in no particular place or time and reflects no one culture. It does, however, recall those archetypal power struggles between women and men so familiar in Western tradition, beginning with Hera and Zeus, Helen of Troy and Menelaus, and Klytemnestra and Agamemnon. The older we are, the better we know the compulsion and repulsion of such relationships, feeling both sadness and relief when they end.

It was originally published in Iowa Review Web in 2004.