In Flight, by Meg Pokrass

The Broken Column, by Frida Kahlo (Mexico) 1944

In Flight

after Frida Kahlo
​ 
The day I broke my shoulder I thought, how wonderful it was to be a bird. Ice skating next to my forty year old nephew, flying as if my life was full of air. I held out a long, blue feather to him as he helped me up off the ground. I’ll be fine, I chirped, suddenly a creaky old person with a broken wing. Can you move that arm at all? he asked, trying to lift me. I shrieked. The pain was bright, beautiful in its fierceness. A bird, I thought, would fly to Florida. He helped me up with the other wing, still intact, and said, oh man, oh man I’m sorry this happened, oh shit.  I was shivering. Getting old is for the birds, I said. Hey, he replied, You were flying, I saw it. Then he helped me to his car and we drove to the hospital.

Meg Pokrass

Meg Pokrass is the author of First Law of Holes: New and Selected Stories (Dzanc Books, 2024) and eight previous collections of flash fiction. Her work has been published in three Norton anthologies, including Flash Fiction America, New Micro, and Flash Fiction International. Recent work has appeared in New England Review, Lit Hub, and MoonCity Review.