The parrot had already eaten twenty-seven pages of the wizard’s book, and the wizard still hadn’t noticed. The book was an overlong, bloated mess, stuffed with extra slips of paper and nearly bursting out of its binding, for the wizard believed his every thought important enough to immortalize with pen and ink. The page the […]
I was a stranger in a land of ice and snow. I had traded the sun on my face because I thought here, I could be safe. In a kingdom where people had no flesh, why would its hues carry meaning? And yet these beings of ice, shining and beautiful and brimming with magic, looked […]
My lungs ache, full of water. Within the ache is a sparkling burn that I love already. I need it like I needed air.I pull my head from the waves. The beach hisses, tinny and sharp. Water streams from my nose and the acrid tang of traffic stings my nostrils.I want to run up the […]
It’s the first time Camille sees his bone collection.She prowls the edge of Simon’s bookcase, brushing her fingers along the specimens on the shelves. The softly lit bones remind her of seashells, smooth and white, silky under her touch. Small animal skulls with teeth sharp enough to pierce skin; a larger one with twisting horns, […]
“It’s not enough,” you say. We’re in the living room. The upstairs neighbors are vacuuming and the downstairs neighbors have music on and I am holding you. It’s an apartment; it’s how it goes. Sometimes it’s so loud you feel sandwiched between sound and sometimes it’s deafening quiet. Sometimes it’s neither of those and still […]
Grandma kept her civilizations on a shelf in the living room. She always let me dust them. When I was just a girl, I would pick up each and peer inside. Some of the baubles were dim, the civilizations inside long since dissolving to dust. Even then they were interesting, with crumbling stone walls or […]
I wake early, the sky outside still cool with twilight. I sleep too much these days, but poorly, sliding down the slope of oblivion only to claw my way up again. The soft tapping of wings against glass is enough to pull me from my slumber. A moth, trapped, drumming against the window. I turn, […]
Durnaz never looks at the waters, that place they call the samundar. Not until the sun has safely risen over Balochistan’s coast.She keeps her eyes on the ground. Seeking salt crystals in dried up shallow pools to grind to powder, seashells to turn to trinkets, or lost metal to sell. Not once does she raise […]
<< Danilo tends to tall, yellow flowers. The sky is pink and clear, with two suns, the big Kabir and the small Saghir, smiling upon the land. Danilo has no trouble breathing and takes large, decadent breaths, filling his chest to capacity. His friend Edwin stands next to him, and Danilo can see his own […]
He brought a vixen to our first date. When he walked into the restaurant she was draped around his shoulders. At first, I thought it a weird fashion statement — fox fur over his black-striped reddish shirt — but then she lifted her head and glared at me.He hugged me hello. I leaned away, not […]