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poetry
Changing Winter Tires
Julie Mahfood
When she tells him the mechanic called, her front brakes need replacing, his reply breaks up into single- cell organisms: "What? Why?"
Crackle of phone.
It doesn't seem to matter these things wear out after a certain time. He is sure the distance traveled matters more, and if you go by numbers, she has not journeyed far enough. He tells her
it must be the way she drives, a series of stops and starts. When she asks if he is blaming her, he asks: "What? No."
Long
pause.
Their silence becomes everything about them, the high expense of worry, this abrupt urge to stop, start.
Julie Mahfood hosts a reading series for Montreal's West Island writers and has had work in: montreal serai, Literary Review of Canada, the Antigonish Review, Room, and carte blanche, among others. Julie was shortlisted in THIS Magazine's 2008 Great Canadian Literary Hunt and will begin graduate studies in English Lit/Creative Writing at Concordia this fall.