The Guard by Jeff Bender

Jeff Bender is an alum of Columbia University's School of the Arts. He is a former college wrestler and wrestling coach, and his work has appeared in Guernica, First Person Arts, and the Monarch Review; he was a winner of Richard Hugo House's New Works Competition in Seattle in 2012. He lives in northwest Washington State with his fiancée Catharine and is finishing his first novel. www.jeffbender.net

The Guard was read by Ryan Ervin on December 5th 2012