Absolute Zero
by Jo Wynaden

    He tells her anything can be broken under the right pressure. Just add heat, or light, or hands binding hers for the second time. Diamonds can only be scratched with diamonds but glass can be shattered with a single note. Skin can melt off hands like napalm gloves.

    Everything has a point that turns it inside out.

    She chips her red-black nail polish, and looks away.
    "Well it might not be love," she says "but it's close enough
    to make me want to try."

    Anna tried, no, tries to find men who feel the same as he did,
    on top of her body.
    ________but they never stay
    ________or they're too light
    ________or they squash her till she can't breathe.

    Anna thinks if she can get it right, if she can find someone who pushes her into the mattress like he did, she'll get rid of the unfamiliar staccato laughter
    which sounds too much like gunfire,

    and she'll stop biting the insides of her cheeks until they bleed.






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