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If you knew about the wolves,
you'd never love me
as your own daughter.
Here I sit in her place,
Marjatta's place.

I eat the rye porridge
you've cooked for me, Mother,
with the wooden spoon
you've carved for me, Father,
as I take up the space
of your dead daughter.

I watched from the woods,
hungry and lonely.
Father tilled the potato field,
Mother spun yarn
from the sheep's coats.
Daughter tended those sheep
in a forest clearing,
returning in the evenings
to the house where light greeted her
at the doorway, and inside
was love and safety.

I watched the family.

I wanted.

When you found Marjatta, throat torn,
your keening chilled my heart.
But I knew you'd grow to love me
when I came to take her place.
After the burial,
I came lost to your door,
a child in the dark.

Mother, Father,
you took me in.

Just like I wanted.




Sara Norja dreams in two languages. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, inkscraw, and Interfictions. Her short fiction has appeared in various publications and is forthcoming in Flash Fiction Online and An Alphabet of Embers (ed. Rose Lemberg). She is @suchwanderings on Twitter.
Current Issue
3 Feb 2025

By: Mu Cao
Translated by: Hongwei Bao
too many things left unsaid/ words fold into themselves 
在沒有時間的Hotel California,Isa成為我的時間。
By: Hsin-Hui Lin
Translated by: Ye Odelia Lu
In the timeless space that is Hotel California, Isa becomes my time.
不思議な道でした。どこまで行っても闇夜。
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Translated by: Yui Kajita
It was a strange road. Endless dark night no matter how far I walked.
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Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
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Issue 2 Dec 2024
By: E.M. Linden
Podcast read by: Jenna Hanchey
Issue 25 Nov 2024
Issue 18 Nov 2024
By: Susannah Rand
Podcast read by: Claire McNerney
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