Things That Will Keep You Through Winter
Margaret Wack
1. Honey, tasting of grass
and impossible sweetness, long dead
blooms of frenzied gold. Stolen succor
burning in the dead of night.
2. Fish, salted twice over, bursting with
the taste of the sea. Hold them
on your tongue until you can bear it
no longer. Then swallow.
3. Grain, grinder of cities, greeter
of plague and plenty. It has risen
the highest buildings up and watched
them fall. It will feed your children.
4. Things festering in the dark,
pickles and preserves, the slick ferment
of fruit, fear, famine. They will taste as sweet
as sunshine. They will fill your stomachs.
5. The look he gave you, once, and the way
his mouth parted yours, sweetly.
We are all hungry here. We are all
starving.
Margaret Wack has had her work previously published in Strange Horizons, Arion, and Twisted Moon, among others. More can be found at margaretwack.com.