​…and everything is okay once more

I nest in the armpit of Jeff Goldblum. He doesn’t mind. He has room there for all his little
waywardians. His arms flap in gestures of acceptance, his fingers weaving stories in the air.
Goldblum, that vibing, space jiving, dark haired god I dreamt of in secret places, hidden away
from what was cool as a kid, worshipping his differences. Time to go little ones, he coos to us
across his glistening expanse of a chest, but we shake our heads and demand he keeps talking
​and dropping them jazzy beats. And he does, and everything is okay once more.

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Melissa Llanes Brownlee (she/her), a native Hawaiian writer, living in Japan, has work published or forthcoming in Smokelong Quarterly, Reckon Review, The Hennepin Review, Cheap Pop, Cotton Xenomorph, The Razor, Milk Candy Review, Syncopation, Lost Balloon, Best Small Fictions 2021, and Best Microfiction 2022. Read Hard Skin, her short story collection, from Juventud Press. She tweets @lumchanmfa and talks story at www.melissallanesbrownlee.com.