She took in authors recommended by the man she loved. Took in words to open herself to him and clung to past conversations long forgotten. She was not well. Escaping into prose like wells of tar. Dark circles rimmed eyes of glassy concentration. Like the darkness of his taste in books, she let him consume her. Dani Marty is a Latinx writer from New Mexico. She lettered in Creative Writing in high school and took several Creative Writing and Poetry courses in college. She has

She attracted chaos. A beautiful distraction, a painful lesson. Her eyes lit up in the darkest of times. I never asked why for fear they’d go dark again. She held me at arms-length after I broke her. I couldn’t get her back. The more I tried, the further she got. She was never going to feel that pain again. She swept the floors systematically. She liked order, routines. Always starting on the west side. Perhaps her favorite room in the house. The one with books. Where she cou