El

    We opened our eyes.
    Our body hurt. The pain centered on our neck, and we couldn’t breathe.

This afternoon I toasted corn tortillas in a pan until they burned my fingertips. They were hot, crisped on the outside and soft in the middle, spotted with brown like a bruised banana.

    We’d already left the Fenglow by the time I woke up the following morning. The Vale had returned to the dark sky with the darker forms of trees and mountains cast against it.

Inspired by reeseriversandstone's 'Dreamsicle, Belly Up'

Pigtails in my short hair
ponytails stabbed with chewed black pencils, my
paper crown proudly lopsided –- a red-blue-markered-stapled staple.

Stars
they said
it was stars overhead
not God not
an Angel
not burning rain-- knell
call--
stars fall
not to the ground but
younger and younger
to the sound
of their hunger
they ate themselves

    Something hard and pointy jabbed my cheek. “Wake up, girl, wake up,” a cool voice said.