Dreams of Another Life

by Elizabeth Kestrel Rogers

You dream of the cresting waves every night
As they arch overhead, with hands to drag you down
Sharp teeth and slit eyes, fins a pynoun
At the end of the lure lies a singular light

During the day you feel like drowning
The mucus in your lungs dark green, cloying and thick
Your movements become slow, anemic
To this nothing your life is quickly amounting

She is not beautiful, nor charming
But your days grow shorter, and those waves are calling
It might be nice to rest, stop stalling
Her fine hands wind in your hair, her smile disarming

This is the control you sought so long
A way to take matters into your own two hands
All it takes is to go into those hinterlands
Your body joins hers, flesh together, a song

Together one, sharing her vision
A new world opens, excitement a frisson.

Elizabeth Kestrel Rogers is a California based writer of both fiction and nonfiction. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MSc in Creative Writing and has since worked primarily as a nature/conservation writer. Her essays have also been in The Mary Sue and Strange Horizons, while her fiction has appeared in Translunar Travelers Lounge. Her poetry can be found in Strange Horizons and Kaleidotrope.

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