The Animal Spell

Someone once told me that animals are people under spells, and if you fall in love with them the spell will be lifted. I recently fell in love with a black trumpeter swan. I watched her ruffle her neck feathers for hours, watched her peck bugs from her breast. I was sure she would make a beautiful bride, but she was always a black trumpeter swan. I once brushed a horse’s hair for 3 straight years until it crumpled into death. The truth is there is no such thing as spells. The world is always as it is, and always as it seems. And love is just our own kind voice that we whisper into our own blood.
Copyright Credit: Zachary Schomburg, "The Animal Spell" from Fjords vol. 1. Copyright © 2012 by Zachary Schomburg.  Reprinted by permission of Black Ocean.
Source: Fjords vol. 1 (Black Ocean, 2012)