Molly Dowling is a writer, artist, and musician.
Her work has appeared in Sonder Magazine, and The 2 Metre Review. You can find her @moldowling

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The Graveyard Shift

I finish work
skin coated
sweat and grease
from hours stood over
deep fat fryer grill
oil-spat scars

dark outside now
my damp t-shirt
hangs chilly

I unlock my bike
beside Sally Longs
pedal over cobblestone
bumps familiar

bright pub windows
tealights in jars

I go past my old school
yellow walls now blue
I go down narrow lanes
barely
scraping
through I go
to the sea

swerve
down empty roads
lamplit like runways

thin wheels purr
under my weight
whirr of rubber
kissing concrete

I swim
just to feel

sunflower oil washed away by salt
immerse my head
swallowed whole
by freezing black motion

• getting out
  the wind feels warm

a lone man passes
with his three dogs
he stops to look
at the feral waves

then back at me
“fair play.”