Old Woman and Tea

by Michael Hammerle

That boy’s gonna’ be
a heart taker.
He’s got
our father’s eyes;
rusty
like an ol’ sunk ship.
He’ll leave them girls
siftin’ the wreckage
for something they’ll never find.

Lord, he is just like daddy.
When’s he gonna’ stop
sugar coatin’?
When’s he gonna’ exchange
holding hands
for intertwined bands?
Get serious,
you know,
diamond dusted,
the hardwork.

Didn’t he almost
lace his boots
once?

What was it he said?
That the ends were too frayed
and frail.

About Author:

Michael Hammerle is pur­su­ing his MFA at Bennington College. He holds a BA in English, cum laude, from the University of Florida. His fiction has been published in The Best Small Fictions 2017 select­ed by Amy Hempel. He has fic­tion in New World Writing, the Matador Review, and the Steel Toe Review. His poetry has appeared in Eunoia Review, Poetry Quarterly, and else­where. Hammerle was named a final­ist for the 2016 Hayden’s Ferry Review Flash Fiction Contest and for Press 53’s 2015 Prime Number Magazine Awards.