The upstairs, frozen windowpane reveals a magical world. Everything worth having is on the other side of that fragile boundary. Your hot breath on the intricate tiny mansions of ice provides a view to the other side. Blur the edges of anything and enter into the world of what may be possible. Your brother leans his sharp chin into the soft scaffold of your shoulder, and you let him. The pipes clink, hollow and bereft, choking and out of breath. Your mother downstairs, rubs her dry hands together, making sparks that bounce off the walls and land in the dark expanse of her coffee gone cold before the cup can be brought to her mouth. You live in a dream where your fever rises and falls, and your brother speaks nonsense. The tips of your fingers feel like they are packed full of pins with glowing tips. The hair sticks up on the back of your neck. Your brother sighs into the frozen air that wraps you both close and holds you tight.
Michelle Reale is the author of Season of Subtraction (Bordighera Press, 2019) and In the Blink of a Mottled Eye (Kelsay Books, 2020) among others. She is the Founding and Managing Editor of Ovunque Siamo: New Italian-American Writing. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
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