The light changes. It flashes the road to sepia in the mirror. A backward glance at the kids shows they’re sleeping and an old man pushes a bike. The light changes it to a skeleton of black lines, changes him to a black line in the mirror. The backward glance of sunlight off the road glares the whole picture into a monochrome the light changes. It changes the old man, bends him into his grandfather, a picture-postcard in the mirror; a backward glance a hundred years ago. Nothing changes. Time fragments like a flash and gleam in the mirror. A backward glance. The light changes it. by Nigel McLoughlin

(First published in the author's fourth collection, Dissonances, 2007)



art by Pat Jones