“Mother made us
into starfish,” he admits —
his mouth a portal,
a door slightly ajar.
Mother walks through it.
Her steps taste like milk,
my brother says.
He spits her out
half chewed
her heels resembling something
horrible –
a masticated mess.
Mother unravels at our feet –
a puddle
of tepid gold.
Angel T. Dionne is an associate professor of English literature at the University of Moncton Edmundston campus. She is the author of a full-length collection of short fiction entitled Sardines (ClarionLit, 2023) as well as two chapbooks, Inanimate Objects (Bottlecap Press, 2022) and Mormyridae (LJMcD Communications, forthcoming). WEB
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