Ramshackle Review

Stay

by Michelle Elvy

I keep you here

behind the wild green of my eyes

in the sticky black of my lashes

under the chewed pink of my nails

in the dry back of my throat

behind the bitter red of my tongue 

And sometimes when your 

tastesmellfeel 

lingers in my world

I think you are real

and then I wish I could 

unsift you through my fingers

back to when you were more than

ashbonedust

‒ back before you

floated away on the full moon’s tide

Michelle Elvy lives and writes on a sailboat. Her professional lives have included teacher, historian, translator, editor, and chief wrangler at a software consulting company. She has published stories about children, food, faraway places, motorcycling, dreaming big, and the kindness of strangers. Her recent short fiction has appeared in a number of online literary journals, and you can find her writing at Glow Worm, flashing at 52|250, listening at VOICES, or sailing on Momo. Michelle is presently in New Zealand, but her latitude and longitude are subject to change. Her love for elephants, however, will never change.