SOMETHING IN THE AIR

It could never have been any other way. The fist to flesh on a day so holy, even lawn
ornaments wore shrouds.  Keening under water, subterranean where all manner of deceit
takes place, we move freely among the impartial.  Pry even an inch and be prepared for
an onslaught, your jaw like the hinge of the box that wobbles in the dark shelf of a
forgotten closet.  How even fastening a button on your shirt can be a hopeful thing, like
snipping off the dead flowers of an otherwise healthy plant that lost their will to live.
Draw the eyebrows with an astonished arch , and with care, reconstruct the grim
mouth.  Program the movements:  hand to eye, foot to stairs, eyes to window, breath to
gasp, wheeze to choke, wail to hysteria—polite, but unrelenting.

Michelle Reale is the author of Season of Subtraction (Bordighera Press, 2019) and In the Blink of a Mottled Eye (Kelsay Books, 2020) among others.  She is the Founding and Managing Editor of OVUNQUE SIAMO: New Italian-American Writing.