by Tony Schanuel
The Scar
Licking his bone, socket to hairline the scar.
Imagine popping the pimento from an olive
with my mouth what could’ve become of his right
storm blue eye, as it was barely meeting mine intact,
for years; if he’d lost it, would ever have we met?—
let alone the rest. No. Time would’ve taken us elsewhere.
He was the cautionary tale: Southside child at the ravelins
near the train tipple flipped a half-undone stop sign,
the pendulum ax in a horror story swung, experiment-close.
He wagered but physics betrayed him. The top right quadrant
of his face gilled and flapped. Blood burbling exciting the crows.
Across the country I burn my finger on a slice
of bologna shrinking to a comical tent in the pan.
The space-time continuum is shaped like that. Badminton birdie,
less erratic in its motion. The ER doctor pulled my future
lover’s face in place, stapled & stitched & transfused
the blood of strangers. We are all, always, on the knife’s
edge of becoming someone else.
Edie Meade is a writer, artist, and musician in Petersburg, Virginia. Recent work can be found in Invisible City, New Flash Fiction Review, Atlas & Alice, The Normal School, Pidgeonholes, Litro, Heavy Feather Review and elsewhere. She can be found on Twitter @ediemeade, Instagram and Threads @edie_thee_meade, or https://ediemeade.com/.
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/.