Delilah’s After Dark by Mia Day

I took a picture of the sound in the room,

and pressed pause on everything else

that wasn’t Delilah’s.

The microphone stood bold and silver, like the moon and

everyone felt like gleaming, unquestionable stars,

idolizing every energy scattered and combining

around them.

Silver and gold rings clank together to

make clapping sounds over

the fainting jazz that

I’d never heard before but somehow knew

every note to hum.

The wine sat in its personality,

with every sip the redness kissed my tongue,

kindling my throat until I was able

to forget the holes that were hiding in

my head and in the pretty bartender’s

shirt sleeves.

The mist came to a fog, and I smelt the

perfume and dry liquor soak the room.

The performers scattered themselves across

the stage and up the isles—

they looked like exotic fruit, ready to be picked

and my legs shook while the hair on my head grew

upwards towards the blank ceiling.

I couldn’t have told you what time it was—

there were no clocks or devices to draw our attention.

We had found another planet

and I was the astronaut voyaging

past everything I had known into

this speak-easy where no one had names, but they spoke easily and

everyone knew the right things to say.

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Mia Day is a Graduate Assistant at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee where she is pursuing an MFA with a concentration in Poetry. She recently completed her BA in Creative Writing at Christian Brothers University, where she finished her last season of college soccer. She also currently works as on the editorial staff on The Pinch literary magazine out of the University of Memphis. Her work has been shown in the literary magazine, Red Planet Magazine and at her local news station, Action News 5.