by Amanda McLeod
If I Die
worry not about our last conversation
words expressed in haste, sentiments
left unspoken, famous last words
are for famous people, we are but
two regular schmoes. Remember instead the
soft dip of my clavicle, a bowl to drop your
kisses into at the end of the day
–welcome home. Think of
the orbit of my navel, the galaxy
we formed from hope and heat,
that one bottle of wine we’d been saving. Please
forget the time I raged about the ways you failed
to love me, and the time after that
forget them all. Say instead
I was a saint–let’s keep our secrets
fold them into little squares tucked away
in desk drawers, pull them out when
you miss the press of my forehead
against your sternum, fingers
like combs through your hair
remember the park
cake and stars, the way
your smile opened into mine?
all these years
I would have been gone long ago
if not for you
brushing the hair from my eyes
showing me another way
Home
A family of birds roosts in a crack in the stones of my house
I can hear the babies when I sit on the porch in the mornings
cool dew of night slowly yields to the heat of day, and
the babies call out for breakfast, an unseen chorus of want
it is two hundred years old, this house
made from thick stone pulled from the earth by
the sunburnt hands of men
I like to sip my coffee
and think of the birds that came before
two centuries of avian interlopers
plus insects and mice, spiders, fungi,
weedy vines I tear away from the stones each spring
that creep back again weeks later
a whole history of beings
coming and going from these cracks
making the most of
man’s imperfections
Claire Taylor (she/her) writes poetry, short fiction, and the occasional essay. She makes up stories for kids in her monthly newsletter, Little Thoughts. Her work has appeared or is upcoming in Capsule Stories, Kissing Dynamite, perhappened mag and more. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland and can be found online at clairemtaylor.com, Twitter @ClaireM_Taylor, and Instagram @todayweread
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, her flash fiction collection Animal Behaviour was released by Chaffinch Press in 2020. 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. Find her at amandamcleodwrites.com