Life Review; Happily Ever Afterlife, By Jude Tulli

I never asked to carry a gun

I always wanted to be a ballerina

I was as drafted as you
I spun round on one leg in the womb

I lost my right leg in a battle we won
To stay paper thin I took apples for bread

Or maybe I never had two
Or skipped meals to plié instead

It's all the same now, isn't it? Some would ask why

Survive the inside of a fish...
Torture yourself for a wish?

To be burned alive on a whim?
You'll burn out; a spinster in slippers too tattered to spin

Not me; the answer descends from above
So what if, in a way, they were right?

I got one long last look at my love
This encore is love at first sight

Jude Tulli lives in the Sonoran Desert with his beloved wife Trish and a small pride of housecats. For quick links to his other works published with EC (including the recent Krampus anthology), his novelette Faegotten and more, you can visit him on Goodreads.

Altered image by Shigeru Hatsuyama.