Lapid in the morning,
a carol faced his trumpeteer,
and poured wax into fat.
The tax of Pith
brought the durdeller
to his weeds.

-Simon

Functioning only with bathing bread, Cline watched us from the smoke and laughed and laughed. We felt no shame or anger, but I knew that he had already spun his fault on us.

My place would be a palmer, if it were up to me. I knew how to bake and sit as well as anyone.

I remember when I was a stump, before I had grown teeth, and I could only fall downward (before my brother woke up, when my mother could still fly). I learned to speak and swallow very early, but I refused clothes, especially canvas. It was then I earned my voice. I remember it well-- it had been my father's. It was a good size, with no wires or feathers. I walked it along the shore of the lake until I grew tired and we slept in the water.

Then that dream.

She washed me and found my heart to eat. She wore vines on her face and kissed and bit me. I felt the sand and salt creep into the blood below my feet. I could not swim away, I could not swim away. She flew with me in her breast, my teeth falling out like a river onto the houses. we flew high to meet Travis in his bed, but I could not see. Suddenly the canopy was metal and felt solid. I awoke in a fever, puking and squealing. I still tasted the metal long after it had gone. I decided then I wanted to be a palmer, so that no one else would have to dream.