Aviation
Sarah Tourjee


They get into the balloon. They get into the balloon and one says, "Aviation." The balloon begins to rise. Fire roars, they are airborne. Where will they land? They groan, they roar. They are escaping. By balloon? By balloon if that's all that reaches them. That's all that reaches them. One says, "What are humans? What do they do?"

But they are human. They are human, but they don't know how. They get into the balloon. One says, "I swim until I can't swim. Back and forth, back and forth." One says, "I wrote that scene." In the distance there is a flash of lightning. "Aviation," says one. "Nature," says the other. But they won't be struck, not now.

"What do they eat?" says one, referring to humans. "Where do they live? What sounds do they make?"

They get into the balloon. They get into the balloon and go into the air, go into a cloud. Cloud makes them cloud, but they intrude. One says, "When I was human I thought it was my body that made me human. I was wrong." One says, "Do they feel pain or care about pain? Do they love?"

They get into the balloon. They get into the balloon and one says, "Aviation."






Sarah Tourjee has stories in or coming from Conjunctions, PANK, The Collagist, Sonora Review and others. A chapbook, GHOST, will be published by Anomalous Press in 2013.

Detail on main page from 17th Century illustration by Faust Vrancic, "Homo Volans."







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