An announcement:
To be spread in code
By the tattered violinist in the Astor Place station,
In an advertisement for a ‘57 Chevy in the Post,
Between needles binding cerise and rose,
And in the songs of select birds who sing in Gramercy Park.

You will understand it.

An invitation:
To be scrawled with colored chalk
Outside the witch’s shop on the Lower East Side,
To be typed in Times New Roman
On an unassuming flyer for lessons in lore,
And on a certain window sill—
        (You know it,
        The one where the grey cat sits,
        And waits for your nod each morning.)

You will receive it.

Come, it will say.
Let us learn the poetry
And magic of beautiful resistance.
Let us respell, reshape the world together.
Midnight. Tomorrow.
(Wear sensible shoes. Wear diamonds.)
Be late. Be early. But come.

(Editors’ Note: “An Announcement” is read by Erika Ensign on the Uncanny Magazine Podcast Episode 19A.).

© 2017 by Sara Cleto & Brittany Warman