by Tony Schanuel
Winter died of a broken heart
or I did before I lived to see it. If you’re reading these words it must be the end of the world. The fire extinguisher is under the sink. Thursday is trash pickup. Takotsubo is the medical substantiation
of loss, the heart squeezed into a Japanese octopus pot, valves shunted, veins collapsed. The companies never used to pay out. Toughen up, say the men of the past and did despite their cardiac health. That indomitable softness wrung out their brittle chests
a foam mattress with two memories, one slowly undenting into forgetting until only black ink oozes out of an ear onto a solitary pillowcase, the rare umami of a creature too intelligent to eat collected in polite pottery collected over polite generations. What else can be a chest a barrel a quill / a
gun? The key is under the mat. I get so tired in a place without seasons. Fall sounds like such an easy act. Lock the doors at all times. The neighbors always want to see everything. The mail never comes anymore. My brother’s wife will come for the boxes of dad’s old things. Don’t you want to see winter before it goes extinct? When it’s your turn, remember the insurance code for grief is cardiomyopathy.
Sara Fitzpatrick has published poetry and fiction in places like The Tampa Review, The Shore, The Night Heron Barks, Emerge Literary Journal, and XRAY. She is author of a collection, Bury Me in the Sky (writing as Sara Comito, Nixes Mate, 2020). Sara is the foster and transport coordinator at Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Twitter: @SaraFitzAuthor.
Tony Schanuel is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who has fused a professional background in photography, digital technology, and painting and mark making to create fine art that transcends those mediums. His work has been featured in Digital Imaging Magazine, Computer Graphic Magazine, Wild Heart Journal, St. Louis Design Magazine, and is a featured artist in Cyber Palette and Extreme Graphics, two books showcasing digital artists and their work. He has exhibited at the Florence Biennale and his art is held in private and corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston permanent photographic collection. http://www.schanuelphoto.com/.