by Alexandra M. Lucas
We are made to walk
Great distances
Unbothered by the calluses
And the blisters
And the peeling lips
What worry is thirst
Or loneliness
Or sweat
To stardust?
You saw the bogs in my cheeks
My sun-bleached bones
How I was starving
Through a grinning skull
When you lifted me
Giving me respite
From the endless strides,
You said you were the West wind
When you favored me
Placed a dewdrop on my tongue
That tasted of honey and turmeric,
I remembered I had eyelids
Once I adjusted
It was so bright
I saw the alabaster slabs
And the crystal houses
For what they were
And you, Zephyr,
Were gone
Now
No matter how far I walk
Or how hard I smile
Through my rotting echo
Now
Water will only ever taste
Like water
Alexandra M. Lucas is a Game Writer at Electronic Arts (Ridgeline Games). She won the GDC Game Narrative Review Platinum Award twice, and she won the 2022 Dark Sire Award for Psychological Realism for “In the Deep“, originally featured in our Spring Issue: Alter Ego. Her short stories have appeared in Coffin Bell Journal and Whatcom WRITES, and her poem, “Leftover,” won a 2020 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Merit Award. Recently, she was named a 2023 IGDA Foundation Next Gen Leader.
Including “In the Deep”, Alexandra’s short fiction has been featured in all HamLit season and solstice issues: “The Other Side” in Winter Issue: No Man’s Land, “With You” in Summer Issue: Second Place, “Harmony” in Fall Issue: Golden Age, “Soldier’s Like Us” in Summer Solstice: Life Expectancy, and “Covenant” in Winter Solstice: Without Pause.