SICK LIT MAGAZINE

Anniversaries

 

I carry anniversaries

in my hollow bones – rolled

calendar dates

of marrow-stained

Firsts

and calcified

Lasts.

 

I course

with

Effigies.

 

Famine

 

We went hungry

to our pillows, and

I found salt on my cheek

this morning, a thin line

 

of sand shaken from my

eye to the smallest dot

on my jaw

bone. I didn’t know tears

left evidence of their

existence the way

the sea does on your

lips sometimes in the

 

evenings. I saved it

to use on the potatoes

tonight – the salt shaker

has been empty.

 

Autumn Toennis is a former beekeeper, part-time hawk, and traveling artist who loves spending time with her namesake for however long it sticks around in Montana (or whatever other country she happens to be in). Other work of hers has been published in Hypertrophic Literary, First Class Lit, and Opsis. You can follow her online at girlinthegrove.wordpress.com, on Etsy at AutumnMarieArt, or on Instagram at @autumn_toennis.