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.



Eleanor Arnason published her first story in 1973. Since then she has published six novels, two chapbooks and over thirty short stories. Her fourth novel, A Woman of the Iron People, won the James Tiptree Jr. Award and the Mythopoeic Society Award. Her fifth novel, Ring of Swords, won a Minnesota Book Award. Her short stories have been finalists for the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Sidewise, and World Fantasy Awards. Her most recent book, Hwarhath Stories: Transgressive Tales by Aliens, is available from Aqueduct Press. You can find her blog here.
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