Originally published in We Will Not Stay Buried in January 2023.

Gothel’s Girls

Her hair was meant for tying.

She grew it out over long months

in our tower we shared,

composing safe words

and testing the give of leather.

When it reached the ground

I helped her braid it

into four luscious ropes.

I bound her naked to our bed

and kissing (and biting)

and bruising (and loving)

I made sure our happily

ever after

was different

every time.

Marisca Pichette is a queer author based in Massachusetts, on Pocumtuck and Abenaki land. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Vastarien, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nightmare Magazine, and others. She is the flash winner of the 2022 F(r)iction Spring Literary Contest and has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Pushcart, Best of the Net, Elgin, Utopia, Rhysling, and Dwarf Stars awards. Her Bram Stoker and Elgin Award-nominated poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, is out now from Android Press.