Richard Foss' "Incarnation in the Delta" (short story, racism, free)

Mostly a pleasant read of 2 black teenage roaming musicians in the US - one of whom is "Buddha’s twin brother" Lalitchandra aka Larry! Larry remembers his previous incarnations, & we get treated to what it feels like to be a turtle who's about to turn into soup for human consumption, e.g.

Intermingled are the uncomfortable "white man hates black man" issues of US, including the ending that is probably intentionally nasty.

It took me a while to get into the story. I've a feeling the time a reader takes to get into it depends on how Gautam Buddha is viewed in his environment - early parts felt awkward to me, though it should not be blasphemous to even devout Buddhists.

Fact sheet.

First published: Abyss & Apex, #29 (Q1 2009).
Rating: B.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Listed in Rich Horton's "best of 2009" from Abyss & Apex magazine