Middle Car from Orchid Mantis by Elizabeth Devlin

1. Middle Car

Rippling silver dinosaur skin, great lake Superior breathes beneath ice epidermis. Middle car of train in which I sit stops, centered in vein of grey country road. Streaked yellow road lines of piss trail off into a barren upstate world of snow, beer and hockey. The approaching car is void of motion but grows like an immersed sponge toy.

This was how it seemed to me, expanding outward, growing larger but never moving closer. This was how it seemed to be, the world eclipsed by a black boulder. Sunlight peers around the shoulder.

Swirling scarlet eddies, red seas, coagulate near naked trees and my cup runneth over. Autumn warlord’s windy caterwaul beckons the blood leaves of grass to fall. The wind on which I stand pulls me up, tumbling me over and out, it's a screaming carnival. Your face was upside down, tucked inside out but baby, you were so beautiful.

This was how you seemed to me, expanding outward, growing larger but never moving closer. This was how it seemed to be. The world's upside down, he once told her. Sunlight peers around my shoulder.

If our fingers were tight rope walkers, then your words and my lips, and your veins and my hips, would be wires. It's a carnival and balance is required. Our hands fall heavily, through the air weightlessly, though the
show's not expired.

• Acoustic
• Ambient
• Americana
• Experimental
• Folk
• Indie
• acoustic
• ambient
• americana
• autoharp
• avant-garde
• avante-garde folk
• indie
• New York