lemonade

in these dark and troubled times
I find myself anaesthetized
by the sweet sting of memories
that swarm and hum like honey bees

sheet lightning and lemonade
faces painted like b-movie braves
frozen ponds and midnight drives
haunted woods and endless skies
fireflies in the dead of summer
running home before the thunder

looking back it all makes sense,
past seems perfect: present tense

another case

he eyes her documents carefully
mother of three
any refugee could be a terrorist

types her name on his flickering screen
radium hieroglyph on electric papyrus
names he can’t pronounce
worlds he can’t understand
realms of palaces and hunger
mystics, statistics and bombs

he asks her all the routine questions
a dispassionate voice
disembodied face above the desk

she is afraid of him
the way he reminds her of the soldiers
framed in the open doorway
the night they took her father
routines and smiles fixed like bayonets

he’ll do his best for her

just another case, you can’t take them all

The Voice buys fiction in all forms and genres. Contact voice@ausu.org for more information. Or, you may wish to submit your fiction for the Voice Writing Contest. See this issue for details and submission guidelines.