We imagined their fossils to be thunderbolts

I have never wanted
children, never been the kind
to dream of daughters
or give these imagined futures
such pretty names

You’re good with kids
someone tells me
and it’s not untrue

I can love what
I don’t want, can tell
my nephews stories
about magic and spiders

and trees whose roots
crack down through
history and even sometimes
into other lives

Here’s a memory I have
of being a child:
in the ocean, I stepped
on a sea urchin

a sharp spine
stabbed into the arch
of my foot
blood welled

when I pulled it
free and I worried
for years, worry still

what harm I must
have done

CHLOE N. CLARK’s poems and fiction appear in Apex, Future Fire, Little Fiction, Uncanny, and more. She is co-EIC of Cotton Xenomorph, writes for Nerds of a Feather, and teaches at Iowa State University. Her debut chapbook, The Science of Unvanishing Objects, is out and she can be found on Twitter @PintsNCupcakes.

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Bridge Eight Fiction Prize

Bridge Eight Press is now accepting full-length fiction manuscripts for the inaugural Bridge Eight Fiction Prize. The prize includes $1,000* and publication as our featured book for Fall 2019. Submissions close December 21, 2018.