BY KM BRUNNER
Copyright is held by the author.
The socks Mom bought for me last Christmas are failing.
They’re old; they’ve slid down
into my boots to rest under the arches of my feet.
There’s no stopping on a city sidewalk.
I pass late-blooming asters —
New York blue — stuffed in with concrete.
They flutter against my palm like her eyelashes;
I board the shrieking train into Boston.
It’s important to stand tall for the ride.
My world narrows, wool pressing
into soft curves, my aching soles, insistent.
Guided to tiptoe, I think
only of each step and my silly reticence
to return to the earth.
***
KM Brunner’s creative work has been published in Punk Noir Magazine and The Blotter Magazine, among others. Her scholarship has been published in Computers and Composition and Technical Communication Quarterly. You can find her on Instagram at kateincirculation. She lives and works in Boston, MA.
