by Amanda McLeod
Old Sardine
She would have fed him tangerines
and tea, served from the fancy opalescent
cut-glass tumblers they could have bought
from the old curiosity shop on the hill.
But he chose to stay in the well
While she climbed and left him
at the bottom
a shiny sardine plug
put there
-in case of an emergency-
And now, her ink well dry, ghosts
loitering like lost children.
In fleeting moments between wake
and sleep she thinks of him, smiles, and wonders…
What his lips would have tasted like after tangerines and tea? And,
Does he have the bones of the old sardine weaved into his whiskers?
Born in North-west England, Heather Joy is a Person-Centered Experiential Expressive Arts Therapist, PhD student and associate tutor of social sciences. She is a mother of two, novice climber and an emerging poet, with previous publications including The Poetrygram Annual 2019 and Auroras & Blossoms Poetry Journal.
Amanda McLeod is an Australian author and artist, with a penchant for wild places and quiet. Her work has appeared in many places both in print and online, and she received a 2019 Pushcart Prize nomination from Ellipsis Zine. Her work has been shortlisted in several writing prizes, and won the 2018 Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award. She is Managing Editor of Animal Heart Press.