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.

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.