Permanent Elastic
by Jonah Mercer
· 29/04/2026
Published 29/04/2026 09:48
I found it fossilized under the estate sale chair,
a hard, grey knot of someone else's nerves.
I used my house key in the rainy, evening air
to scrape the sidewalk of its jagged curves.
It’s a peppermint ghost, a discarded thought
pressed flat by the weight of a thousand heels.
I wonder what battle the original owner fought
while they chewed through the way a panic feels.
It won’t dissolve and it won't let go,
stuck to the pavement like a stubborn mistake.
There are things we leave behind that we don't even know,
and things we carry that we can't manage to shake.