- At the Outset by Jay MacLeod
- Stardust by Chrissa Sandlin
- A Cappella by Melissa Studdard
- Taking Flight by Mangesh Naik
- Bride Price by Sari Krosinsky
- Let Down by WC Roberts
The Bride Price
by Sari Krosinsky
Persian Empire, 302 CE
I
She was out when I came. I dropped my clothes
on a chair and stretched
under her covers. Marjarah curled up on my feet
and warmed me to sleep.
Her weight on the corner of the bed woke me.
She clutched a fistful
of fruit, sticky with heat.
"He's a scholar," she said. "At the academy in Sura.
He's going to be a rabbi."
It was an avalanche in the Khyber Pass. Well, not really. The dust
would have settled by now.
"And his father has figs, acres of them.
And he's Jewish.
You're too old for me, Kavi," she said. "And soon enough,
I'll be too old for you."
"Hannah," I said, "go fuck yourself."
She bit into another fig, her fingers gritty with them.
II
The wedding, I understand, was pretty. All the best rabbis
blessed the lovers, bickered over the wine—its coming
from a Persian merchant, maybe unkosher, and after
the eighteenth jar, all declaring it an excellent vintage.
The father-in-law, I'm told, made a good show
of feather pillows and a rug tinted
with twelve lavish dyes, one for each tribe.
Of Hannah, the reports only said
that she was lovely, but a bride
must always be lovely. Perhaps
she only sat quietly at her new husband's
elbow, smiled properly for each gift,
sipped trayf wine. Perhaps
she was thinking of someone else.
BIO:
Sari Krosinsky's first book, "god-chaser," is forthcoming from CW Books. She edits Fickle Muses, an online journal of mythic poetry and fiction. Her poems appear regularly in literary and genre magazines. She received a B.A. in religious studies and M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. She lives in Albuquerque, N.M., with her partner and cat.