Fossil

Ruby Davis

(she/her)

Ruby Davis (she/her) is a Naarm based writer and artist. She graduated from the Victorian Collegeof the Arts in 2019 with a BFA Screenwriting. She is the current editor of online journal Sour Cherry Mag. Ruby was the 2019 recipient of the Australian Writers’ Guild Mentorship Award.

You can find her at www.rubidavis.com and @rvbydavis on instagram.

Ruby works and lives on Wurundjeri Land

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FOSSIL

Oils hold me still.

Each brush stroke slowing my heart,

Soothing nausea.

Melt into the canvas. Moulded, clay-like flesh

Twisting underneath the pigment.

My insides are stone, relieved. A relic of a woman

Who no longer wanted to feel.

Reds and oranges and greens

Resting on top of Caked-dry paint.

Stiff with varnish.

I am, finally,

Fossilised bones on canvas.