Smithereens Press Chapbooks Atoll by Dylan Brennan | Page 16

Hollow and dead, the carp-eyes of severed heads are blurred by translucent membranes of cobwebs – spinneret-gland silk, like myself, grown old and grey. The canals under the clouds of a violent August. I am as the wandering woman that I’ve feared since birth – a llorona of the daytime, visible trails of whispers in my wake. Lately I’ve seen the warm fingers of a siren beckon from beneath a seeable-down-into surface. She knows where my first doll plays. I will go to her. 10