The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Corrosion 
by Alina Măciucă 

Drops of I, and of all that I have ever eaten, and drank and loved,

Drops of watermelon, and bourbon, drops of middle-aged men–vulnerable,

Yet so willing to fan out over the infinity of micro constellations that were once

Known as my skin,

Drops of women, with the bodies of athletes and the souls of maenads;

Drops of she, who was once known as postal clerk number seventy-one

And of all that she has ever cooked for her three children,

Drops of the love she carried for her husband, who blackened her left eye each

Time she didn’t get the stew right,

Drops of he, who was once known as the butcher with cauliflower warts

On his fingers, and of all the pretty little lamb heads he has ever chopped,

Drops of his loneliness and despair, and all the horrible jokes he barked at

His patrons

Eat at the street you walk on every day

On your way to becoming

Water.

And the drops,

And your steps,

The regrets,

The clock that

Spins,

They sound like jazz and prayers and gods munching on nothingness

While listening to John Coltrane.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alina Măciucă
Image courtesy of  Pixabay.com

More about Alina Măciucă:

Alina Maciuca lives in Bucharest, which she loves to capture in highly imperfect photos. Sometimes, she posts those on her social media. She thrives in big cities and aeclectic communities, and her needs are often met during her travels. So far, her work has been published in Vastarien, Space and Time and Penumbric Speculative Fiction Zine.