An insurance investigator digs muddy soils out of a dry river. Handling an excavator dexterously. She knows the flow path will lead to the runway. An ocean-going cargo plane departs from airport today.

The insured as probably deceased was on a run. A short letter was left in the room where the fugitive kept himself hidden from the world. Characters written in mashed raspberry juice bled onto the writing paper. Unreadable password put down on a Panama diary in Nile Blue made by Smythson.

The plane disappears into the sky casting a shadow over the sea. Instead of a gentle melancholy, faded recollections will return on the next flight. Powder snow spills from the hourglass on the sandbank between the river and the runway. Time mingles with the grainy raw sugar to make a steamy, bitter and sweet chocolate. While unlocking the sluice gate.

…

hiromi suzuki is a poet, fiction writer, artist living in Tokyo. Her writing has appeared in 3:AM Magazine, RIC journal, Berfrois, Minor Literature[s] and various literary journals on-line.