“Between the Waters of Phlegethon & Molloy” by Marisca Pichette

Xe asked me to build a boat
so I did—

laid raven wings end-to-end,
carpeted the deck with gossamer

& stitched sails from wormsilk
& moths.

Xe asked if I could swim
could sail waters

the color of scrying
stones.

I replied:
“I was born in the tides

with barnacles on my bones
& cowrie in my hair.

My teeth are abalone,
my skin slick as eels

that linger
in the deep.”

Here, it is deep.
Deeper than all the waking world.

Under arctic waters waves drive us
into the soul of darkness.

Xe asked me as I sailed
at last to xyr pier

“What will you use
for an oar?”

Ah, there I had an answer
smooth as abyssal currents

eternally lapping
my bird-feather bow.

“My oar,” I told xem,
my face reflecting obsidian eyes

“is what I bring with me—
my hand will serve.”

“Is it enough?” xe asked,
for my hand is small & latticed bone.

“It is as much as I can offer,”
I replied, moths kissing my naked cheeks.

“For across waters I’ll bring them all—
those who are no more,

those who will always be—
and as long as I sail

I’ll feel the cold we cross together
& know my task

by heart.”

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Marisca Pichette is a queer author based in Massachusetts, on Pocumtuck and Abenaki land. More of her work appears in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Nightmare Magazine, and others. Her poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker and Elgin Awards. Her first novella, Every Dark Cloud, is forthcoming in March 2025 from Ghost Orchid Press.

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