The Sword Swallower Cuts Their Tongue While Saying Goodbye

J. Bradley is the author of Teenage Wasteland: An American Love Story (WhiskeyTit Books, 2020) and On the Campaign Trail (Long Day Press, 2020). He lives at jbradleywrites.com. "The Sword Swallower Cuts Their Tongue While Saying Goodbye" was originally published in Short Edition quarterly review, Short Circuit #04.

The weather was good today, you answer whenever I ask how are you, how was your day. I don't know when we stopped talking about what mattered the most because you won't tell me. I ask are you OK, and you shrug and wait until I'm out of the room to confess to your cigarette. If you wanted me to figure you out without you taking a risk once in a while, you should've married the magician, the one who made you beam when he pulled a rabbit out of a hat and gave it to you for the world to see.

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