Belonging

table of contents

***

Yeah,

Brisbane wasn’t alone.

All the cities I found to the south: dead.

All the towns I found: ghostly.

All the life I found: snakes and bugs and possums and rabbits and bin chickens.

So I flew back to the school

in the middle of the outback.

Of course, no human has found the school on their own,

just like in every storybook ever

that has a hidden magical world

rubbing up against the real one.

But I’m a witch

unlike when I was younger

and it’s literally right there

in the red rocks and shrubs,

built like a brain coral

but black

with twin flickering doors halfway up one side,

and I perched my bin chicken claws on a brain fold in the roof and partially expected a dragon

to hop out of the doors,

perfectly timed

so they wouldn’t get cut in half

but no one came to greet me,

a bin chicken

with a cane in her mouth

and a cloak around her neck

(not easy to fly with,

mind you,

but I didn’t have a faster way).

So I clawed my way closer

to the unguarded pair of doors,

their hinges

and wood

flickering

between realms

and times,

and I made my wings

chimpanzee arms for holding the cane

and made my beak

a demon mouth

for speaking,

then uttered a spell

that the dragon who brought us here

probably spoke too,

to hold the door

here and now,

though I don’t recall

what one dragon said

centuries ago,

but while speaking the words

I thought of those

silver claws

and fire tongue,

and wondered what possessed

such a dragon to save us.

Except the spell I uttered

held the doors in place for only five seconds

so I didn’t wonder long,

I pushed on the spiral lock

and the doors opened like slick rocks murmuring

and I dropped inside.