New Beginnings
Poem - by Marge Simon
Artwork - by Shikhar Dixit
Because he would have it no other way, (the man she thought she loved), she went along with him to a temporary outpost on another world.
Things she discovers: the forever sunset of a tangerine sky/sweet perfumes from singing trees, vibrant flower petals, delicate as ancient lace…
Because she is lonely, says she misses home, he brings her a lifeform for company. She nurtures it from silky floss to shining wings, whispers baby names. She says it calls her Mother, but the sound it makes hurts his ears. She holds it out to him, but he refuses to touch it.
Things she treasures: the cognition of a dreaming river, a certain fragrance in the wind, familiar and not; the antiphony in flight of the sky children…
He finds her out wandering without a mask, talking to herself or dancing alone among the thrumming trees.
Things she knows: the mating season is ahead, a time the skies ignite in terrible storms of blue fire; she is almost ready…
She serves him meals, but will not eat of it herself. She flinches at his touch, turns away when he tries to have sex. He is tired of her laments and sick of her sickness. Her deformities are growing impossibly fast, those ugly wings, that rasping voice. So, when his work is done, he leaves her there to meet the storms at the dawn of her new beginnings.
