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Nothing is right.
The bird I thought was made of glass is turning to ash.
I shouldn't have given her away like that;
strangers' hands are deserts,
white salt flats under a dazzling sky,
with nowhere to hide while still in one piece.

It's better this way.

She always comes back a dogeared book.
A chipped thrift store figurine that never flew.
Grandma's-house dust on her wings,
soft and suffocating and almost sweet.
Her leftover song a discordant nightmare,
drilling into what's left of my brain
like a woodpecker beak on a goldfinch body
that can't bear the strain.

It's better this way

She no longer fits inside my chest where she belongs,
or maybe she never fit in the first place.
Or maybe it's me who's changed shape,
my ribcage a crucible too hot to hold her.
Perhaps we're old lovers, each grown too much to recognize the other,
and it's time for one or both of us to fly free.

It's better this way.



A.Z. Louise was a participant in the Winter Tangerine 2016 Summer Workshop.  Her poetry has previously been published in Wizards in Space Literary Magazine.

Current Issue
19 May 2025

I could live or survive off of bunny breath alone, eating little clouds of fog.
Exceptional measures are required.
By: Elle Engel
Podcast read by: Emmie Christie
In this episode of the Strange Horizons Fiction podcast, Michael Ireland presents Elle Engel's Half Sick of Shadows read by Emmie Christie Subscribe to the Strange Horizons podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠
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