Doppelganger of a Dead Boy

I almost drop to my knees on the linoleum
of the airport and cry.
I almost reach out
to touch his face.

I imagine his look of surprise and say
“it’s just…
you remind me of someone I knew.”

But then the boy in yellow
with the coffee skin and curly hair
is gone, and I still stand in the check-in line,
my breath caught like a barbed fish
in my throat, kicking.






Theodosia Henney has just returned from several months of travel, and is intensely grateful to be back at her laptop, deleting piles of spam for porn, bamboo flooring, and LDS singles. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in over a dozen publications, including Ghost Ocean Magazine, Blossombones, Grey Sparrow Press, and Fifth Wednesday Journal.