Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash
by Cole Beauchamp
After painting and dancing, before afternoon chess, the girls glide to the palace garden, line up in rows and kneel on all fours. The first girl hikes up brocaded robes, scrapes tender thighs over the others’ backs, a low-burn friction urging her along the row, faster, hindlegs strengthening. The second girl leapfrogs along the pond’s curving path, the third into the cherry orchard. As they jump, gimbal joints replace hips. Eyes began to bulge. The higher they leap, the higher they shriek, vocal sacs bellowing as they leap to the tops of trees, snatching delicate pink blossoms with long, sticky tongues.
Cole Beauchamp is a queer writer based in London. She was in Wigleaf’s Top 50 in 2024 and makes a mean gooseberry and orange jam.
