Postcard prose – Issue 11 | January 2011
The Well
by Annabella Massey
Over the past week, Lucie has been sprinkling herbs into the well every night. Lavender works best, but peppermint is good too, and she particularly likes lemon verbena. She crushes this between her fingers and rubs it onto her wrists where it rests above her pulse.
I’m not sure what Lucie threw in last night. Possibly tarragon. When I drew the water up this morning, I also drew up a fat little baby in a new silver bucket. It kicked its feet and made noises like a ruffled dove. Lucie was delighted and immediately said that we had to keep it. This was a gift from the well, and if we rejected it the water would turn sour. I wouldn’t be able to stand that, so I agreed.
The baby is gentle and easy to care for. In the daytime when it wants to play, we just lower it back into the well where it swims around. It dips its head below the surface and feels the stone.
About the author
Annabella Massey has spent three years of her life in China, and has traveled extensively round Europe and South-East Asia. Now in her second year reading English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick University (UK), Annabella was a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2006 and has been published in Pomegranate Poetry and Cadaverine Magazine.
Read our current issue, Issue 11 | January 2011:
Poetry
Berlin by Sy Margaret Baldwin
Two Poems by Sean Edgley
After Your Funeral I Set Out to Find You in Different Time Zones by Jennifer Faylor
Painter by Ricky Garni
Other Than by Dana Guthrie Martin
Two poems by Timothy Kercher
Five Views of Guanajuato: A Mythology by Athena Kildegaard
Two poems by Mary Kovaleski Byrnes
Goya by Trent Nutting
The Changing of the Flowers by Jennifer Saunders
Two poems by Ken Turner
Postcard prose
Buttons by Jennifer Faylor
The Enemy Tree by Kirby Wright
Escape on the Canal by Addie Zierman
