Adele Evershed
Masks
I know this time of waiting—I know it best. It is like an old rival-—
demanding attention and always trying to break a person. It remade
the world into a puddle of tea sitting in my mother's cup and it made
me long to leave myself.
It is no better now—sitting alone again trying to peer through screens
and masks wondering when this waiting will end. Yet the old rhythms
remain and my body aches wanting to take me away.
Instead I take down a book. A white moth bothers the light but I leave
it for the break in the silence. I let dregs of tea stain cup after cup as I
turn pages in treacle time and allow myself to be unfastened by a
story not my own.
Under the flower moon an old scent of ruin crawls in my hair. Yet I
can forget there are no happy endings, just less sad ways to die. And
I can make-believe for a moment that the ghost keeping me company
is just a moth...
Bio
Adele Evershed was born in Wales. Her prose and poetry have been published in over a hundred journals and anthologies. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net for poetry. Finishing Line Press will publish Adele's first poetry chapbook, Turbulence in Small Places, in July 2023. Her Novella-in-Flash, Wannabe, will be published by Alien Buddha Press in May 2023. Find her on Twitter @AdLibby1 or on her website, thelithag.com.