« Amy Lee » Silence We sat quietly, our silence muffling the soft squeak of shoes, tongues separated by the waspish air. There was stillness to it, the reassuring feel of we will not be denied. Our issues, unresolved, dissolved into water, soothing the salt-stings of our wounds. They swirled in a whirlpool, concentric circles stacked neatly like Russian dolls. Our feet witnessed the draining of the salt. Viola Sometimes it's hard to walk alone at night, sway sensually past the sizzling lights and smell the scent of sex thrusting itself through the air. I used to be a gingham-girl, threading chains of daisies and grass to trap myself in suburban despair. Now, I'm a slinking panther, trawling the grasslands of the squares, and the alleyways, fissures in concrete hillsides - it's where I'll find them. I hunt; there is nothing but the cold glow of streetlamps, and the echoing stillness of the pavements. I glide home; scrub my face to a raw pinkness - 'blushing lily', my mama used to call it. I wear her nightgown, the ensemble is completed by papa's white slippers. I sit; crease the checked covers of the chairs. A book is opened, the papers snap at the silence like cracked whips. The whispers of the walls wear away, to the soft hush of dark. And in the quiet of the night, there is only me. (Previously appeared in Flutter) Blank Sea Corrosion washes my face, blunting it to a blank mask. Veins exposed, I taste the ferrous tang; red blood cells echo the sonorous sounds of clanging bells. I can see water, a sea the bitter blue of copper sulphate; the unnatural hue hides the grasping arms of black-green seaweed. I used to swim here, slipping sleekly between veiling tendrils. I can see the water, you know. Ells of it, blue silk sliding over my outstretched fingers, thin and skeletal, like dead twigs after winter's passage. I sink into watery sleep. Amy Lee is a girl with many interests, most notably poetry, eating, sleeping, and reading (though not in that order). She has been published in Flutter, and her work will also appear in the inaugural issue of Black Magma Poetry. She will soon be relocating to Melbourne where she intends to pursue a BA majoring in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne.