Image description: the photograph is shot from a low angle. A dark silhouette of a woman – hands in her pockets, and facing the camera – stands in front of a brightly-lit, pink curtain. 

 

By Caitlyn Stone

 

 

Describe me,

She says,

In three words.

 

Her foot dangles off the

railing.

The night air is cold and sharp and quick.

Her breath is

red wine and

cherries and

wit.

 

Three words?

He asks.

 

Three words.

 

He would like to say that she is

A cut,

A burn,

A kiss.

That she speaks in

foreign languages and

late night whispers and

hears but never listens.

 

He would like to press his

face to her neck and feel the

warmth there and whisper,

 

You are a wildfire,

A fearless woman,

A breath of wind.

 

But they sit quietly,

Feet dangling over railing,

The night air; cold and sharp and quick.

 

She laughs, a bright sound that tumbles out,

She spreads her hands so he can see the veins,

And kicks out her feet, and whispers,

 

I like to think that I’m electric.

 

 

Caitlyn enjoys procrasti-writing and caring too much about what other people think of her writing

 

Image courtesy of Hakeem James Hausley via Pexels