My Writing

“Reduction”

Rachel Sandell

Reduction—

to make smaller,

to decrease,

to shrink, retreat, shrivel,

to be made small,

to be reduced.

The dark is a shadow,

widening into a mournful yawn,

swallowing warmth, cold,

anything that feels to the extreme,

and leaving behind nothing, taking

the larger than life, the vast wide world

of hope, possibility, sunshine on grass

and diminishing,

little by little,

until there is only little,

until there is only nothing.

There is no reducing without expanding,

and so the void expands, creaking claws into the edges of the soul,

sharpening fangs and leveling gnashing teeth

directly inward,

until

I am small,

I am nothing,

I am reduced to

only this.

~~~

Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash

Published by Rachel Sandell

Rachel Sandell is a writer and editor from Washington State, where rainy days necessitate long books, hot chocolate, and plenty of magic. Though she specializes in speculative fiction and harbors a love for the dark and enchanting, she also dabbles in poetry and is the archive project coordinator for Fireweed: Poetry of Oregon. She is an MFA graduate from the Rainier Writing Workshop, and her short stories have appeared in SORTES magazine, Night Picnic Press, and Leading Edge magazine.