izzy

there’s a cutout of a mountain where my face used to be
it was certainly the best option, in my opinion

maybe it wouldn’t objectively be the best option ever, like
the best option for face replacement surgery anyone’s ever had
but it works for me

I feel like an alpine dream.

*

sarah

They flick the switch on the dimmers and they kick into life, that low whine-hum of the lights warming up, of the electricity settling in the grid. I bend double, cycle my spine down to the floor, clicking my knees into place, unhinging my shoulders and letting the fluid snake down my arms. I am heavier here, older, achier. I stoke the fires in my belly and tuck a little lighter fluid behind my teeth, ready to bite down and let it loose. The ceiling plays static, bouncing from speaker to speaker with ping pong precision. I close my eyes like red velvet curtains and peer through the cracks at the stage. Footsteps shuffle outside, the herding stupid scrapes of too many people in too small a space. I breathe in deep, breathe in power and fear and spiny black words and I won’t breathe out til the applause hits the wall behind me and bounces back off, and I am full of its echo and myself again.

*