"cold" by Thomas Gillaspy
"Talking to my Sister" by Amanda Gaines
The first time I met Olivia,
I was naked from the waist up,
white dress bunched at my hips,
showing my sisters the siren I’d sewn to my back
that summer without asking.
Did it hurt? She traced her fingers down the
ridge of my ribs. When I faced her
open breasted and told her that I kind of liked it,
I watched her eyes lock on my shoulder
as she shook her head,
pulling at the shirt hiding her
birdlike chest as if she had been let in on
an embarrassing secret. That night
I pressed my thighs against the bathroom door
watching to see how much space I could occupy
through a broken mirror. I thought of Olivia
behind another wall, running hands over
her runner’s limbs, wondering how heavy the future
would weigh beneath the slope of two breasts.
I turned off the light before opening the door,
afraid to break the still darkness of rural nighttime,
afraid to wake the sister who always sleeps
through the circadian efforts of birds just learning to sing,
trying to serenade the most brilliant thing they have
ever seen.
I was naked from the waist up,
white dress bunched at my hips,
showing my sisters the siren I’d sewn to my back
that summer without asking.
Did it hurt? She traced her fingers down the
ridge of my ribs. When I faced her
open breasted and told her that I kind of liked it,
I watched her eyes lock on my shoulder
as she shook her head,
pulling at the shirt hiding her
birdlike chest as if she had been let in on
an embarrassing secret. That night
I pressed my thighs against the bathroom door
watching to see how much space I could occupy
through a broken mirror. I thought of Olivia
behind another wall, running hands over
her runner’s limbs, wondering how heavy the future
would weigh beneath the slope of two breasts.
I turned off the light before opening the door,
afraid to break the still darkness of rural nighttime,
afraid to wake the sister who always sleeps
through the circadian efforts of birds just learning to sing,
trying to serenade the most brilliant thing they have
ever seen.
Amanda Gaines is an MFA candidate in WVU's Creative Writing program, was a poetry reader for Calliope, a literary journal and similarly, a poetry editor for Mind Murals, the Eastern Region's literary journal for Sigma Tau Delta. Her poetry and fiction have been published in both. She has publications both past and upcoming in poetry, nonfiction, and prose from The Oyez Review, Straylight, Gravel, The Meadow, Rogue Agent, After the Pause, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Dewpoint, Typehouse, and Into the Void.
Thomas Gillaspy is a northern California photographer. His photography has been featured in numerous magazines including the literary journals: Compose, Portland Review and Brooklyn Review. Further information and additional examples of his work are available at: http://www.thomasgillaspy.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasmichaelart/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasmichaelart/
