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The ocean threads our hair
with the loam of
night forgotten.
I've counted the hours
since you have quivered to
life in the core of me,
folding outward in twos and fours
and sixes.
Our body divides.
Morning
presses
through mangroves
with a fat and milky fist
and I can see the day unfolding
on our skin.
I washed away your
brothers and sisters in the
brackish slurry
between my legs,
their screams the
beating of moth wings
and fairy dust.

You will only miss
them when I
am gone.

They will call you
Calvaluna,
Cambion,
a jumble of bones and
meat clinging to
the idea of arms and legs.
Half formed now
in our body,
you the murky reflection,
the lees of the Atlantic
washed ashore
with the
caridea and the ballyhoo.
Small.
Malignant.
Monstrous.

Beautiful.



Lora Gray is a nonbinary speculative fiction writer and poet from Northeast Ohio. They have been published in F&SF, Uncanny, and Asimov’s, among other places, and their poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award. You can find Lora online at lora-gray.com.
Current Issue
22 Apr 2024

We’d been on holiday at the Shoon Sea only three days when the incident occurred. Dr. Gar had been staying there a few months for medical research and had urged me and my friend Shooshooey to visit.
...
Tu enfiles longuement la chemise des murs,/ tout comme d’autres le font avec la chemise de la mort.
The little monster was not born like a human child, yelling with cold and terror as he left his mother’s womb. He had come to life little by little, on the high, three-legged bench. When his eyes had opened, they met the eyes of the broad-shouldered sculptor, watching them tenderly.
Le petit monstre n’était pas né comme un enfant des hommes, criant de froid et de terreur au sortir du ventre maternel. Il avait pris vie peu à peu, sur la haute selle à trois pieds, et quand ses yeux s’étaient ouverts, ils avaient rencontré ceux du sculpteur aux larges épaules, qui le regardaient tendrement.
We're delighted to welcome Nat Paterson to the blog, to tell us more about his translation of Léopold Chauveau's story 'The Little Monster'/ 'Le Petit Monstre', which appears in our April 2024 issue.
For a long time now you’ve put on the shirt of the walls,/just as others might put on a shroud.
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