Words to Tie to Bricks Read Online Free Page B

How she guessed it, you won’t know. You have never really looked like a singer. You have quiet
looks.
    But you can sing – she will have seen it in your reaction; your body will have betrayed you, sided with her. It will not be the last time.
    ‘Sing for me!’ she will demand, delighted, and it will be hard to be nervous when her infectious smile is close enough to catch.
    And you will fight it for a minute or two, shaking your head as she nods hers, but you will surrender to her, because there will be a light in her eyes you can’t bring yourself to
deny.
    You will purse your lips to keep from smiling and look down. ‘I’m no Mozart,’ you will mumble as she slides off the piano. Her arms will fold and her eyebrows will rise and you
will be able to see her eyes truly for the first time – shadowed in dark powder, lined, but electric – and it will be enough to drive you to slide onto the stool and to push your
fingers to lift the smooth dark cover and rest on the white keys.
    You will take a breath, and her teeth will bite down on her lower lip, and you will start to play, singing the low melody under the piano, your fingers as nimble and smooth as ever.
    None of it will be special. You won’t feel anything much, playing for her. Maybe a little squashed flame of a rush, a scrunched-up accordion of excitement, but it will be nothing compared
to what you feel when you get to the part you know best and turn to look over your shoulder and see her dancing.
    It will be shocking, somehow. You will be at a house party, after all; dancing is a given, along with drinking, general debauchery and someone vomiting somewhere they shouldn’t. Dancing
shouldn’t be so surprising, but it will be. It will be like you have been given a window into something beyond incredible, watching her twist and turn to the music, swaying and setting her
cup down on a side table so she can raise her hands to the ceiling. The way she moves will captivate you; how she is able to bring her whole self together to the music and how she can transcend the
stepping over of rugs and the presence of side tables and the buzz of other music and other people to be this.
    You will wonder if some day this moment will be nothing more than a rehashed summer memory; if the magic will lose its lustre with time. You will ask yourself if you could ever contain enough of
her in any record you could keep to stop you forgetting why it can be a good idea to abandon verbs for parties.
    Don’t worry. This is only the beginning.
     

With the Birds
    C AELEN F ELLER
    Birds sit on the wire outside.
    They can feel the cold.
    It has been in the air for years.
    Predatory by nature,
    It bites them, takes those weakest.
    The birds have no warm jumpers,
    They have no mittens.
    They’ve lost them, I’m sure.
    I think how cold they must be.
    I feel it – it chills me as I watch them.
    They’re only birds.
    Not real people, I know.
    When a person is taken,
    People care.
    We watch them as they go.
    A frozen bird is surrounded,
    By other birds, those who care.
    Watching, I am fascinated.
    My mind wanders.
    I’m with the birds.
    My head is in clouds.
    It begins to snow again,
    The snow covers the bird in a shroud,
    Buries it.
    I mourn with the birds.
     

We Regret to Inform You, Madame
    C ONOR K ELLEHER
    Sit,
    Ink,
    Pen,
    Fold,
    Envelope,
    Send.
    Wait.
    Receive,
    Open,
    Read,
    Cry,
    Crumple,
    Toss,
    Burn.
     

Home
    G RACE C OLLINS
    M AYBE , JUST MAYBE , I’ LL COME home. In a physical sense I’ve never left but really I’ve
been gone for years. My body still walks around, smiling and making small talk when needed. But it’s hollow and empty; there is no passion in it. You see once upon a time, I heard of these
wonderful things and I told myself stories of what would and what could happen if I was brave. I started to feel like I needed to chase these dreams, each sentence drawing me slightly closer to
where I thought I should be. And I started to see the dangers