By Betty Stanton

I 

Her mouth smells of liquor and wind. She wears strength like a jacket—borrowed, too big in the shoulders—the rain echoing on concrete like prophecy.

Inside, coffee is bitter as blood on bitten tongues, iron-strong. He says she walks funny. She says nothing. Cigarettes clenched between fingers that won’t still, she folds herself into the hollow of his voice. 

He is whispering about God again. She doesn’t celebrate holidays, just bodies—crossed ankles, eyes that don’t blink. She wants to be wrapped in arms, not questions.

Outside, the wind is wet. She can’t taste the bitterness unless she swallows it.

She swallows it.

Her mouth becomes a cathedral of smoke.

II

Soaked, she sits with elbows pressed to her knees like prayer. Neon buzzes above her, spitting violet onto the sidewalk. 

In the dark, something is trying to die.

A homeless boy pushes a baby carriage past. He says nothing. She nods anyway. The cold presses against her lips like a question she tries not to answer.

He is whispering about God again. Once, she thought she would be something loud. A prophet. A hunter. A myth with teeth. Now she watches the light walk across windows, listens to the beat between someone else’s words. 

She knows when people are afraid. She can feel it in the way they flinch when the wind kicks.

III

Inside again with one boot heel clicking and the other scuffed to silence, her reflection in the glass looks like a distant cousin – the blurred charcoal eyes, the iron-hard set of her lips. 

He says something about biochemistry. She laughs quietly – the sound of something tipping over inside her ribs. Inside her pocket she fingers a matchbook with fingers that won’t still but does not light anything.  It’s just the gesture now, the ritual. Like prayer. Like swallowing your own name.

He is whispering about God again.

Outside, the rain has stopped. The streets steam and forget her. 

*   *   *

Betty Stanton (she/her) is a Pushcart-nominated writer who lives and works in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in various journals and collections and has been included in various anthologies. She received her MFA from The University of Texas – El Paso and holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership. She is currently on the editorial board of Ivo Review. @fadingbetty.bsky.social