by Anj Baker
The novels would say that
Now the veil between realities
Is thin like water like paper
Cup it in your hands
Cut it with a knife
To die on the solstice
Must be so easy just
Slip away nobody has
To know not at first at
Least then why linger
I don’t have the right to
Speak to him for him
Not here not now he
Slips out and stays in
The doorway eternal
Southern goodbye
We all catch up
Silence is white hot
We all catch up
And we listen to
The master bedroom
Sometimes it takes dying to
Remember it all meanwhile
Outside the cows keep vigil
It’s a hundred degrees.
****
Anj Baker was raised in rural Appalachia but now lives in small town Illinois. A 2024 Clarion grad and a first reader for the sci fi mag Fusion Fragment, they write mostly spec fic.