ART
BY NATALIE COMFORT
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JAKE WINKLE
Anniversary Dinner two candlesticks, languishing yellow, sit, Proud, Rigid, held in small dark jars gripping their bases. thin wax flakes gather around the upper rim, a couple falling further, past engraved spiraling intertwined with thin straight cracks of the brittle wood. a teardrop of wax slides, meeting the tablecloth, inner liquid wax rippling and wrinkling, pressing against the walls of its congealed surface. the man slouches forward, forearms crossed, hands hanging off the edge of the table, the woman leans to one side, then another, eyes fixating on a painting, indistinct brushstrokes of gold and blue. and the flame flickers, casting shadows, one moment tall and thin, another moment short and wide, leaning to one side and then another, responding to unfelt drafts.
-Natalie Comfort
24
Rough 4.indd 24
4/25/22 2:22 PM
