Portrait of a Girl, 2006

By Ashley Hajimirsadeghi

Rumor has it Aphrodite was actually born here—
rose from the foam of the Chesapeake, 

declared this a loveless place. That’s why no 
daddies stayed around these parts. Neither god

nor human could declare love, left us nothing 
but urban myths. My daddy left on a birthday, 

said he was a magician-for-hire. He taught us a 
trick: the promise of coming back, then walking 

out the door. We took rusted forks and ate 
yolky eggs, watched its guts cascade through 

the gaps and descend back onto the dirty plate. 
Called this true love, godly intervention. We were 

no sinners. We prayed every night to the Bible with 
a bent back, then, when the lights were off, 

to the novels with make-believe tucked in their 
yellowed pages. In the dark, we wrote sonnets, 

held our hands together, closed our eyes, and prayed to 
Aphrodite. Hired every magician in town each birthday—

never found the right one.

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Ashley Hajimirsadeghi is a multimedia artist and writer. She has had work appear in Barren Magazine, DIALOGIST, Rust + Moth, and The Shore, among others. She is the Co-Editor in Chief at both Mud Season Review and Juven Press, and reads for EX/POST Magazine. More of her work can be found at ashleyhajimirsadeghi.com