Illustration by Sue Babcock
You love the captain, so you skin him
and wear his pelt on your back
like a trophy.
You love the captain, so you share a kiss with him,
soft like the velvet moss at the bottom of the sea,
rough like the whale’s grainy tongue.
The captain loves you, so he steals your skin
and hides it in his house’s foundations, keeping you
landbound while he sails away.
The captain loves you, so you voyage
together, he on his ocean vessel,
you in the water,
exploring distant seas and shores.
He names the boat after you.
You name your children after star signs—
of earth and of water.
BIO: Avra Margariti is a queer Social Work undergrad from Greece. She enjoys storytelling in all its forms and writes about diverse identities and experiences. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Daily Science Fiction, The Forge Literary, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Argot Magazine, The Arcanist, and other venues. You can find her on twitter @avramargariti.