issue 6
// poetry
Small Talk
by Audrey Lane
We leave to collect eggs
before he wakes, bleary
and bloodshot with wine.
It is early, nearing five,
but the sun is already slipping
the way Ohio winters
careen toward the dark.
We arrive in the hazy
between time when
molten ribbons melt
to gray horizon
behind the barn.
We talk about small things.
All the while, I worry.
We cannot mend. We cannot
siphon. We cannot press
grief into a simple
shape with cigarette-
stained fingertips.
But we can reach deep
into feed bins, scatter
corn for the chickens,
pull still-warm eggs
from shadows, tuck them
close in the wire pail. Watch
our breath disappear
into brittle air. Pray
they do not break.
about the author // Audrey Lane
| Audrey Lane is an Austin-based writer who grew up in Dayton, Ohio. After earning degrees in English and environmental science from Davidson College, she pursued an MA in English from Middlebury’s Bread Loaf School of English and an MFA from Queens University. She is currently working on her first poetry collection. |
Instagram: @aulane12
wildscape. literary journal 