A Fourth Lesson in Magic

by Kristine Ong Muslim

She reclines, and her skirt of stray stars
flickers. Something large in the ceiling
makes the darkness there seem denser
than usual. She ignores the distraction,
sips a love potion where her unfaithful
lovers drown again and again. In the
nursery, the half-formed changeling
whines for milk; her cat leaps to get to it.
A black bird comes to life and emerges
from the carpet. A man, a new lover, is
still growing out of the floor. Perhaps,
he will be ready tomorrow. She opens her
book, reads about conjuring dragons out
of spring leaves. Her skirt of stars, like what
Pablo says, shivers in the distance while
the ripening lover looks up from the floor.

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Bio: Kristine Ong Muslim, a twenty-five-year-old recluse who lives in Asia, has more than three hundred stories and poems published/forthcoming in genre and mainstream magazines and anthologies, including DarkRecesses, Dark Wisdom, Electric Velocipede, Grendelsong, Kaleidotrope,Not One of Us, Star*Line, Surreal Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine,Tales of the Talisman, Wicked Hollow, and many other fine publications.Her publication credits are listed here