Havisham By Cassandra Atheron

She sewed seed beads around the frayed hem of her wedding dress. In the shape of minnows. He watched her scallop glitter glue for the scales and add a single sequin for the fin. She wore the dress while she sewed. Twisting in the lacy fabric. When she finished sewing the fifth minnow above a jagged tear in the lace, she hesitated. Frozen. Staring at the door. As the clock chimed nine, she knotted the cotton and severed the end with her teeth. Holding out the tattered skirt in a semi-circle, sea-green minnows glinted in the dim light. Darting around the bottom of the dress. Swimming around her neck, green fish made from paperclips wound with lime thread and malachite beads linked head to tail. She looped her arm through a shadow and sipped chartreuse. Muttering something about it being their special drink and the colour of her kamikaze dress. Lifting the layered lace. Waltzing with the darkness. Arms outstretched as she hummed into the decaying emptiness.

© 2014 Cassandra Atherton

Cassandra Atherton is a Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies and Creative Writing at Deakin University. She has in print a book of poetry, After Lolita (Ahadada Press, 2010) and a novel, The Man Jar (Printed Matter Press, 2010). She has also written a book of literary criticism, Flashing Eyes and Floating Hair: A Study of Gwen Harwood’s Pseudonymous Poetry (Australian Scholarly Press, 2007) and a book of interviews with American public intellectuals (ASP, 2013). She is currently a guest editor for Mascara Literary Review. http://www.cassandra-atherton.com

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