Micaela Daney

Some Go, Some Stay

“I don’t understand why you always have to do things like this,” Kate said aloud, when she got Olivia’s text. She was alone, standing under the ash tree in her yard, watching the stained glass window of leaves swishing above her head. A bird spiraled in the sky, churning in a whirlpool of wind. The wind might gradually be wearing out life’s seams, but it seemed like a living thing itself, turning leaves into birds, and birds into slowly pirouetting leaves. Below her feet, a network of wooden arms spread, extending their fingers as far into the earth as they could reach, secure from the death billowing above. Kate touched the bark and imagined herself falling into the comfort of the steady black earth.