Grace Heriegel

–

Champagne popping, glasses

clinking, coq au vin cascading

on piano notes to myself

alone in the sombre.

–

I pull my duvet over my face;

It gobbles me up whole

as I sink away, consumed.

The silky ribbon of

–

the black unspools, living

where others die

I thrive, growing in the

dark corners and hallways.

–

I hear some-body calling my name

but my resilience thrives in the

dreary, far from cool-white fluorescents.

I am eaten in the shadows. Shame!

©Grace Heriegel, 2026

–

Submitted to the Mire Magazine 2026, with the theme ‘germinate’.