“The day I bought my cane, I realizedI was through with the burden of feet. Instead,I am going to become a mermaid. I have always liked the ocean, the promise of depth. I am tired of this dry world,all of this dust and sickness, these barren fields.I want to dive without drowning. I want to kiss sharks.I want men to carve me into the bows of their ships like a prayer, before I lure them into the depths with my fishnet mouth. I want the beauty, the gorgeous mutation, the fairytale of half body. All the wisdom of a woman, without the failures of sex. I am plunging. I am not coming up for air.I do not want all this human,my legs move like they resent being legs, my body is wrecked by all this gravity.I cannot face another morning waking upwith no hope of a fairytale. Here on land, I am always drowning. Here on land,I cannot move.”

− Clementine von Radics −