Broken Threads

Translucent sinews strung up in the dark corners

of a child-mind’s tomb. Grain-filtered light festoons

negative space and casts dancing, never-written shadows on the

ground.

When I touch a string hung above my head

it breaks.

The feather-soft threads pull apart and wind

loosely around my fingers in silver uncertain rivulets.

The limp strands hold faint glimmers of what once was.

They let out hoarse whispers of what-ifs and how-cans

but I can’t hear them.

I tip

my fingers down, and the sinewy strings

rag-doll and loosen and

fall.

With them, black what-nows tumble down

and tiny writing-spiders hit the ground.

Megan Snedeker is a Midwestern pre-service educator and writer. She is in her final year of an English Education degree and has spent a couple of years as a freelance writer.

#sinewy #fingers #threads #spiders #dark #shadows