by Alexina Dalgetty
after forty years of marriage June became a trout
& lay flat on the riverbed amongst silt, sand & tin cans waiting to swim beyond, wondering if scales bruise, watching for the mysteries that turn a fish belly up, making waves in the brackiness as her final air bubbles escaped to the surface. Nibbling a tasty morsel June moves up and up, reeled in, photographed for size and mastery, a trophy, proud hands with hardened yellowed fingernails linked about her fishy girth until, just out the frame her teeth grow long and bite the hand that hooked her.
Alexina Dalgetty’s short stories are occasionally published in print and online journals, including Agnes and True and Stand Magazine (forthcoming). Her debut novel, The Cleaning Woman’s Daughter (2023) was published by Liquorice Fish Books, an imprint of Cinnamon Press. Her second novel, A Crack in the Map won the 2024 Cinnamon Literature prize and is scheduled for publication in spring 2026. She lives in Camrose, on Treaty Six territory.