When all the stop
lights on Main Street began flashing
yellow we knew we were out
past curfew.

Our inner compasses should have been set
for us to migrate home
but instead those lights illicitly
whispered “fly, baby, fly.”

We were all turning into birds
that year and our parents were desperately
tying ribbons from our feet
to the windowsill.

One of us flew around a curve so fast he never came back.

Our parents used it as a cautionary tale.
Left newspaper clippings next to the Golden Grahams.
Their version of those bird silhouettes plastered
to windows of skyscrapers.

Every tock the little hand made after midnight
rang in their ears
like the snapping
of hollow bones.

Megan Waring graduated from Virginia Tech with her BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Since then she has lived in China, North Carolina, Virginia, and currently, California. She often teaches children but more often finds them teaching her. Her work has been published in The Silhouette, The Legendary, Germ Magazine, Aegir, and is forthcoming in the Used Furniture Review. She was the 2010 recipient of the Virginia Tech Literary Award. She blogs occasionally at mmwaring.tumblr.com

Amanda Mabel is a fashion and portrait photographer living in Sydney, Australia. Originally from Singapore, she moved to Perth in 2011, then Sydney in 2012. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts (Advanced) (Honours) at the University of Sydney. In her free time, she loves taking photographs, travelling to beautiful places, and drinking tea. She also happen to blog for Vogue Australia Spy Style. She maintains a website at www.amandamabel.com and can be found on:  Instagram  Facebook  LinkedIn  Pinterest  Tumblr  Bloglovin Flickr.