Size / / /

Content warning:


Last week I had a word for it.
That feeling when something goes well,
really well,
and you’re warm and bright inside—
there’s a word—
but it’s gone, stolen, seized in the raid;
the others have it now
in the town across the bay,
not the feeling, but yes the feeling,
and the word.

They came again this week,
with those things in their hands—
metal, sharp,
you hurt people with them,
we have them too,
but not the word—not anymore—
the sounds and the sense
taken back across the bay,
a trophy of their triumph.

Today it was the water—
the big water that divides us—
we’re losing more and more,
more battles, more words,
all gone across the water I can’t name anymore
because it belongs to them now,
the—
what are they—
I had a word for them this morning, I know it—

I don’t know it

—I only know they’ll come back
and I won’t know what they’ve taken.
Just one thing after another
until we have no words left.



Marie Brennan is the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent, The Onyx Court, other fantasy series, several poems, and over eighty short stories. As half of M.A. Carrick, she’s also written the Rook and Rose trilogy. For more information and social media, visit https://linktr.ee/swan_tower.
Current Issue
9 Dec 2024

The garage turned T-shirt shack hadn’t always been right on the bay, but erosion never stopped and the sea never slept.
the past is angry for being forgotten.
gravity ropes a shark upside down as if destined for hanging.
Friday: Beyond the Light Horizon by Ken MacLeod 
Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
Issue 11 Nov 2024
Issue 4 Nov 2024
Issue 28 Oct 2024
Issue 21 Oct 2024
By: KT Bryski
Podcast read by: Devin Martin
Issue 14 Oct 2024
Issue 7 Oct 2024
By: Christopher Blake
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
Issue 30 Sep 2024
Load More