Size / / /
My daughter is gone.
She has turned into a salmon.
Fat and silver,
she glides through the ocean.
All I wanted
was a good marriage for her.
All I wanted
was a wizard for an in-law.
Obstinate as a pig,
she jumped in the water.
With a flick of her fins,
she swam from our family.
Children so rarely
turn out the way you want.
Copyright © 2004 Eleanor Arnason
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Eleanor Arnason sold her first short story to New Worlds in 1972. Since then she has published thirty or more short stories, five novels, several essays and a bunch of poetry. She has lived in New York, Paris, Honolulu, Detroit, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. Her hobbies are politics, economics, and birdwatching.