The Linnet's Wings Summer 2014 | Page 72

Last year she was undoing a lifetime of knots, swimming in rancor under pods of mimosa, waiting for summer, worried that snow songs held off spring. This year May coaxes a shadow behind the fence, dark-eyed kisses in a tub of hot rain, dyeing her mouth the color of blooms, promising, promising. Her house is not empty. The memories web her brain, and drip into veins running cool. It won't be July before company comes. The clairvoyant nestled between her thighs is sending out signals, tracking the leashes tied to the ribs of lumbering men, synapses popping in time with a tune, words too soft to hear.