The Dignity of an Iceberg

by Aurora Bones

Art by Armin Mell

---

The sun shines hard

on the tennis courts.

The sticky aroma of asphalt mingles

with freshly cut grass & cicada songs.

Ava’s perpetually cold hands push open the rusted iron gate;

it’s rasping screeches scraping against the sidewalk.

She glides on her skateboard,

carried by a current invisible to me.

I strain to see

significance in each object & gesture.

I long to be beyond this external mirage—

anything could be a symbol, a hint, a key

to translate a language that if I could unravel backwards

would lead me to understand her inner landscape.

She is wearing a gray & blue striped shirt,

deflated.

Her sleeves billow in the breeze

revealing cigarette-sized scars.  

I pedal tiny circles on my bicycle: defying gravity,

but just barely.

My fairytale skirt over-spilling

milky layers of tulle & white shimmering: opaque.

Blue checkered boxers sprawl

out of her tight torn jeans: faded.

Green & black checkered shoes

make her a student of Hemingway’s style—

so much surface

only glimmering towards

what lies beneath.

Armin Mell, Contingence

---