Ursa Felt Thirsty

Ursa felt thirsty. Ve walked through a red velvet curtain and found verself outside, in a stone courtyard. A stone fountain trickled water around a statue. Greenish-gray water. A portly bronze king sat on a big bronze horse. His sword was broken but he held his fist out anyway. Ursa sat by the sickly water.

Far away, ve saw the ocean. Ve smelled salt.

Women walked towards the ocean. They came from a big stone university, and they pranced into the sunshine. A Native American woman swung her hips and tossed her black mane of hair. Two women looked at the statue, then nickered and snorted. An old teacher, dapple-gray, closed the university doors and herded her prodigies. Seagulls flew, swooping to caress the broad hips of the women.

Ursa fell in love with the ocean.

Ursa Caught a Fish

Ursa caught a fish. It lay in ver arms, relaxed. Silver scales went from tip to tail. A scale stuck to Ursa’s shoulder, and another to ver wrist. Its gills were soft and pink. It was a salmon.

Ursa walked up the shore to a beach party. Ve showed the fish to men and boys, who cringed and shied away. They drank blood out of beer cups.

“That’s disgusting,” someone said. “How’d you snag that ugly thing?”

The salmon said, “Ve didn’t. No hook. I bit line and held on. I waited a long time, too.”

“You get a monster like that, you have to cut off its head,” someone said.

“You want a beer?” someone said. The men and boys shouted and laughed, and ate something fried in a pan.

“No thank you. I guess I’ll go cut off its head, heh heh,” Ursa said. “I’ll just ask it what it wants first, ha ha.”