by Elinora Westfall

I fell in love, and bought a hat – all in one morning.

Love makes fools of us all. Makes us do silly things. Things we scarce imagined.

Green felt. The wrong coloured ribbon. All a flop like a pancake in midair. Even I thought I looked odd. But I wanted to see what would happen among real women if one of them looked like a pancake in midair. So, into Moisey-Stevens. In came the dashing vermeil-tinctured red-bottle-stopper-looking Mrs Edwin-Ridley. She started. Stared. And then she smiled. Looked again. Thought Ah! What a tragedy! Liked me even as she pitied me. Overheard my flirting with the woman beside me. Was puzzled. Finally conquered. You see, women can’t hold out against such a blatant flagrant disavowal of ordinary womanliness. They open their arms, as to a flayed bird in a blast: whereas the women of this world with every feather in place are pecked. Stoned. Often die. Every feather stained with blood.

– at the bottom of the cage.

Elinora Westfall is an Australian/British lesbian writer of stage, screen, radio, fiction and poetry. My work has been previously selected by Cannes Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival and has been published in Acumen, Rattle, Litro, The Sheepshead Review, Every Day Fiction, Yahoo News and The Mighty to name but a few.