Askew

by Dawn Macdonald ​

A contemporary witch can ride a canister of compressed
air by directing the outflow against
the teeth of a plastic comb while clutching a coal-
black kitten. The astute reader notes the conundrum:
she has not hands enough: for comb, cat and canister
nozzle. It just takes practice. ​

An owl’s ears are asymmetrically placed
to enable vertical sounding by analyzing the time
differential in the arrival of a signal.
The scruffiness is a part
of the predatory act. ​

When you wear a skirt it’s like you’re getting away with not wearing pants.
If you make a sufficiently complicated knot, it can be a sweater.
You look quite ordinary. No one will even know.

Dawn Macdonald lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she was raised off the grid. She holds a degree in applied mathematics and used to know a lot about infinite series. Her poetry has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, The Malahat Review, and Strange Horizons.