Outside the window of their second-story apartment arborvitae and balsam fir sieve the air for crows and blue jays, and hold the darkness close. Rain falling on the porch roof adds a dreamlike cadence. She walks into the narrow kitchenette, takes a small pot off the pegboard and fills it with tap water for tea. Next she lights a stick of green-tea incense to cover up the smell of secondhand smoke wending its way up through the heat vents from the landlord’s apartment. The rain picks up as she returns to her spot at the window. Two crows perched nearby let the rain trickle down their backs in silver rivulets. The sound of footfall on the downstairs porch landing signals that her boyfriend is back from his run along the river. When the screen door slams, the lights flicker. Their conversation starts softly with “Hey.”
if rain
then the opposite of rain...
first trimester
short prose has appeared in 100 Word Story, Mid-American Review, Modern Haiku, KYSO Flash, and Unbroken. Her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and anthologized in Nothing Short of 100 (Outpost 19, 2018) and in NOON: An Anthology of Short Poems (Isobar Press, 2019). Recent collections include a prose poem e-chapbook, Qualia (White Knuckle Press, 2017), and a collection of short poetry, for Want (Ornithopter Press, 2017). She is an associate editor for The Heron’s Nest.
