Four of Swords

Duality
by Amanda Crum

my heart is a fickle bird
and she belongs in November
with the flame and rot

I nearly lost her once
when the season rolled
without a warning

you can run along
like a whistle through the graveyard
or lilies in the nave

to be whole
you can be the spark
or you can keep embers

but to have both
is to give your winter away
to sunshine melt

Amanda Crum (she/her) is a writer and artist whose work has appeared in publications such as Barren Magazine and Eastern Iowa Review and in several anthologies, including Beyond the Hill and Two Eyes Open. She is the author of two novels, The Fireman’s Daughter and The Darkened Mirror. Her first chapbook of horror-inspired poetry, The Madness In Our Marrow, was shortlisted for a Bram Stoker Award nomination in 2015; her story “A Shimmer in the Parlour” was a finalist for the J.F. Powers Prize in Short Fiction in 2019. She currently lives in Kentucky with her husband and two children.