Anniversary

I. The dying beat of butterfly wings, jade and citrine beating & beating until they dissolve to dust. Infinite sunset, rupturing like a raw egg yolk, silencing all who see.

II. There’s a sense of beauty: scorched homes w/ the lingering aroma of fried dumplings. An album of wedding photos & elegant stationery. But you can no longer see faces.

III. There are documents you’ll come across: diaries & photographs & yellow-stained. Receipts for store-bought milk & dry ice. Gasoline, there’s always gasoline. Beautiful fragments of the love & loss that followed, until they’re lost in the wind.

Erin Jamieson’s writing has been published in over 100 literary magazines and nominated twice for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Fairytales (Bottle Cap Press, 2023) and a forthcoming collection, and a historical novel, Sky of Ashes, Land of Dreams (Type Eighteen Books, 2023).