July 31, 2026 [Issue 48] the lift of your hand was too simple a gesture, Laura Ann Reed

the lift of your hand was too simple a gesture to signify resignation or goodbye. had I touched your sleeve. had I spoken. did the fibers in your arms remember the weight of my body, as on the day you carried me over the sea thistles? we could have made a place as gently edgeless as the late afternoon flight of the shorebird, daylight turning into a way of leaving. you who knew so little of what insinuates itself inside us, that hones its blade on us. how did you explain it to yourself, the carnage? seeing the form of a child change in the blue fluid of flame, did you hasten your own end? it’s time I surrender the illusion of my right to grieve. still, I mourn tomorrow’s chance of knowing just what I am given before it is broken.