Uncanny Magazine Issue Sixty

We step heavy but rise soaring. The dead want a good show. It’s a requiem, not a revel. Wise woman cackles, says we won’t live through the night. Roving are the sharks, hanging over this spot of muck from which we rise to remember the devoured departed. Lights swing clam-swathed. Shouts echo, grief and feral defiance. We flock, flash our scales. Our capes are rainbows, flapping at squints from cracked balconies. We swing from poles, bounce on canopies, knowing if one of us were to die, better here than by the sharks. Cheers tidal wave, carry our leaps, turn our flips, spin our whirls. We cry at the tom-tom-tom, steady now, beating chests now. A shrill cry pierces through the wave. Some tumble but rise again. This is a requiem, not a revel. We are not drunk. We are clear. And clear is the path around the bend, where we cartwheel over our dirt, straddle their fences, and stick our tongues out at those gaping grey jaws. Hands behind their backs, the sharks hide their teeth. Today they’ll tolerate our lurid scales, stomping cries, senseless leaps, one breaks a bone. We drag him to the knife. Better now than the sharks. Lights reply from their side, murmured instructions. Some of us hesitate, but the requiem is not over. The tom-tom-tom, steady now, beating chests now, of the drum compels us to answer in wilder leaps, climbing inches from the concrete barrier, then flipping into each other’s arms, spent, teary-eyed. The dead want a good show. We hear the honking, siren’s wailing, but the drum continues. We see the wide eyes of its drummer. He is compelled to continue, so we don’t back away from the barrier, not as it scrapes open, not as sharks flood our ranks. Today, they beat us back to our homes. Tomorrow, we’ll have them whole.

Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga is allergic to place. She writes about migrant experiences with the help of a tornado auntie, lion goddess, boy stuck in reflections, the occasional ghost, dragon rights activists, etc. Her work has most recently been published in GigaNotoSaurus, Augur Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, and FIYAH Literary Magazine. It has also appeared in anthologies such as Africa Risen and super / natural: art and fiction for the future. You can find links to her works on her website: aline-mweziniyonsenga.com/.

Festival of Scales and Teeth