Receipt                                                                                                                                                     Volume Three
June Tang

In the frozen food aisle of Woolworths, you are crying.
Whiskey breath spirit, palms calloused from touching girls

who couldn’t love you. An apparition for a father and a sister
in the ground. In the checkout queue I hand you the money

and my necklace. A closing curtain on our small history, our
bloodied affair. Wondering if the cashier girl can detect the flood

in your eyes. One dollar short, she says, so you dig your pockets
for more coins. For more time. For a way to undo this knot

without undoing yourself. Your tongue is swollen with
unanswered questions and I take the 5-cents change like a souvenir

from a place I wish I hadn’t been. Outside, the sky a darkening bruise;
your face a broken power line. You tuck into my hand the receipt:

a memory of our bond. A lingering reminder for what we both
lost.

~

June Tang is eighteen years old and resides in Sydney, Australia. Her work can be found in Thistle Magazine, Freckled Magazine, and Voiceworks Magazine. Her poem, "The History of Grief" was awarded First Prize in the 2013 John Marsden Express Media Poetry Competition for Young Australian Writers.