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Someone Needs Someone

Aura Martin

Cento from “Elegy for My Sadness”, “NATURE POEM”, “Poplar Street”, “Self-Portrait as So Much Potential”, “Sorrow Song with Optimus Prime”, and “the school of dreams” by Chen Chen & Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro


We spent several minutes knocking each other’s pieces off the board. There’s no question Ruth was keen to keep the whole thing going. A chess expert able to teach me the game. I engrossed myself in those ornate pieces.


I’m trying out this thing where questions about love and forgiveness are a form of work I’d rather not do alone. Every kind of someone needs someone else.


She fixed me with a concerned look, which made me feel all the more worried.


You are just in the same room with me and my unsweet, uncharming, completely uninteresting sadness. Your soul dreams it is not just a slightly shorter way to write your heart.


She nodded and sighed. Kath, the sorrow is held by your heart now. Then even your most stubborn muscle grows weary. You’ve got guts. It is time to show the universe what you are capable of.


I have trouble imagining what that could be.


At this, I stood up, packed up the set and walked off.

About the Author

Aura Martin is a writer from Missouri. She is the author of the chapbook, Those Embroidered Suns (Lazy Adventurer Publishing) and the micro-chapbook, Thumbprint Lizards (Maverick Duck Press). Her poems have appeared in EX/POST MAGAZINE, Kissing Dynamite, perhappened mag, and elsewhere. In Aura’s free time, she likes to run and take road trips. Find her on Twitter @instamartin17.

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