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A rearrangement of words found in Rio Cortez's "Like a Suggestion" (Golden Ax, 2022)

i.
cowbirds startle
toward grey places
two wolves lope
behind the Atlantic
the house stands
before fences and water
salmon door open
the island cat
all abandon and
hunting spring

 

ii.
wi(n)dow
(move, they say)

 

iii.
i haven’t returned
things (her hand, ear)
to their wooden cribs
it’s easier to sleep/
walk together
even in dying places

 

iv.
still, i’ve heard
hounds start their lope
(she runs)
to our fresh kill


Tampa Bay native Crystal Sidell grew up playing with toads in the rain and indulging in speculative fiction. Her work appears in 34 Orchard, Apparition Lit, ETTT, F&SF, On Spec, Orion’s Belt, Sprawl Mag, Strange Horizons, Trollbreath, and other publications. Her novel Repetition is forthcoming with Dead Fox Publishing. You can find her on various social media platforms @sidellwrites.
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8 Jun 2026

But I am no king, no man. It is a role I assumed in serving, with perfect order, those who scarcely saw fit to name me. Wild and shimmering, I hide from myself no longer. I was born twice from death. It is time to mend what was broken, even if they will not.
i am learning my new friend’s language / she said do you want to look for frogs sometime
They took the verse... and translated its grief into a new alphabet.
Friday: Hermits Die on Thursday: Stories of Appalachia and the Dark Ages by Gregory Ariail 
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