Narrated by Gretchen Tessmer
Illustration by Sue Babcock
you’ll likely find them
gracing the cover of Vogue
two glamorous girls, sitting
on a lime green bench in 1920s French styles,
with pale, translucent hands
and diamond jewelry everywhere
“now listen,” the first says
to a man in tasseled loafers
“it’s less in telling stories and more, I say
in shouting down false kings of heaven,
those fallen angels now here bidden
falsely dealing unclaimed wisdom
do this, do that
and don’t run with scissors”
<she lights up a clove cigarette, unfiltered>
she continues, “and there’s no great mystery in this—
we all seek rented space-time
on the xyz-axes”
<the girls make the sign of the cross in sync>
“but we will not meddle
nor sink to the level of stinking pits of grave decay
of apple cores and carrion flesh
of carbon strands that break down and build up
only to easily waste away…”
the second girl, through pert lips
painted deep with violet stain, adds
“no, that’s just not our way”
BIO: Gretchen Tessmer is a writer/attorney based in the U.S./Canadian borderlands. She writes both short fiction and poetry, with work appearing in Nature, Strange Horizons and F&SF, among many other venues. For news of publications and upcoming projects, follow her on Twitter: @missginandtonic