Size / / /

While I have yet to pick my weapon of

ultimate dispatch—

the looped string attached to the doorknob;

the pliers;

the cannister of knockout gas

or anaesthetic syringe—

by the time my benefactor shows up

to claim her assortment of ivory

(you cannot see them now, but

gleaming with blood and spittle,

the last three of my incisors

lie beneath my pillow like miniature

tusks— the human equivalent

of an elephant's graveyard),

the only other thing I will have left

to decide is how I'm going to spend

the purse I intend to take from her.

See? In order to press my case,

I've already prepared

the restraints of floss, the fragrance

of which now permeates the air

like an abattoir of mint —

even as, like a snake a-sniff,

my tongue probes the semi-empty

sepulchre of my jaw.

Seconds later, feigning sleep, I

hear a noise.

Cautiously, readying the garrote

of floss, I risk a peek; and just

as expected,

with coins held tight like unrung

bells, in, on gossamer feet,

tiptoes my mother.




Robert Borski works for a consortium of elves repairing shoes in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. You can read more of his work in our archives.
Current Issue
4 Nov 2024

“Did you know,” the witch says, “that a witch has no heart of her own?”
Outsiders, Off-worlders {how quickly one carves out a corner of the cosmos, / claims a singular celestial body as [o u r s] in the scope of infinity}
Lunar enby folks across here
Wednesday: The 2024 Ignyte Award for Best Novel Shortlist, Part Two 
Friday: A Place Between Waking and Forgetting by Eugen Bacon 
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
Issue 23 Sep 2024
By: LeeAnn Perry
Art by: nino
Issue 16 Sep 2024
Issue 9 Sep 2024
Issue 2 Sep 2024
Issue 26 Aug 2024
Load More