Sometimes Ben likes
to hang upside down
on his bed, so he can
“feel the sand”
spill down his throat
and into his cheeks.
He is convinced
that lives are kept
in hourglasses.
He tells me “If I can reverse
the sieve holding my life,
for even a minute,
I can get some of the time
back that I’ve lost.
Imagine, all the time
we’ve wasted hiding in here —
imagine getting some of it back.”
I watch his face turn red,
his thin ears fill with blood.
I tell him “Sit up.”
I beg “Ben,
don’t be stupid.”
But he swears he tastes them —
the grains in his mouth.
I pretend
not to hear them crunching
between his teeth.
Mandel grew up in West Windsor and is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan where she majored in creative writing. She now attends Washington College, studying psychology and writing and sings for her band It’s The Moon. Her hobbies are drawing, music, performing at local coffee shops, and exploring landscapes, cityscapes, and dreamscapes.
