by Katie Hughbanks
Restless
I don’t work as hard
as you think.
But I’m always working.
The cars work.
Telephones.
Computers.
Even if my car is telling
me it’s broken,
it works.
To get away.
To discover
my daughter asleep
on the balcony.
So much rain.
She is soaking wet.
Shivering.
She is a flower.
I can never tell
if she is dreaming.
I can never wake
her up.
I am the one asleep.
When her father is
around, he makes sure
I can’t drive.
Blue painter’s tape
covering my legs.
Pretty little design.
A hot shower.
This work
strapped into safety.
Immobile,
my car.
I press the pedal.
Her petals fall quietly
from the sky.
Amanda Adrienne Smith is a one-time indie horror actress and currently works in the aerospace industry. Her work has appeared in Ghost Gity Review, Right Hand Pointing, and The Rising Phoenix Review to name a few. You can find you on social media @amandaadrienne.
Katie Hughbanks (she/her) is a writer, photographer, and teacher whose photography has been published in more than 40 magazines. She is the author of two chapbooks, Blackbird Songs (Prolific Press, 2019) and It’s Time (Finishing Line Press, 2024) and teaches English and Creative Writing in Louisville, Kentucky. FB: Katie Sullivan Caswell Hughbanks; Insta: https://www.instagram.com/katiehughbankspics/; X: @KHughbanks1021.