An Unkindness of Ghosts

by Rivers Solomon

So they said. So they told themselves. So their stories went. This far from the past, no one could truly know their history.

How Lucifer felt upon leaving the Heavens. He didn’t fall. He dove.

but angry mothers meant bloodshed and trauma.

and Aster wanted to be one of those women who could bear lonesomeness well. Ornery as she was, Aster knew much of being by herself,

There was so much to which the body could become accustomed. Aster used to think, Never again—never again or I will would surely die, but she never did.

Drops of goodness in a pool of fresh blood.