Page 48 - ns2026

Evanescence
Gryphon Akridge-Phillips
The rain thrums, cascading over metal roofs in San Diego.
Where the woman clutches her almandine red satin shawl closer. Silent in tremor, she plucks lavender buds, fingers varnished evanescent purple
Breathe aquatint cold, the man on Mumbai leave, stumbles behind. Evangelical treaty,
the book reads thumbed between.
Gray matter over matters in the mind.
Calloused water poured from the kitchen faucet, splashed onto face. The woman tied ringlets of brown hair that form an autumn crown. As she picked up a brush, she painted with consuming fervor,
a self-portrait, shades of blue,
and her lover, placid in her arms.
The man walked down 5th avenue, footsteps heavy with the solace of
a diagnosis, pancreatic cancer. Later at home, the sheets kingdom-cold. As he stares into the pitbull’s onyx-black third eye, drowning between his
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