489 words

Dear Reader,

You tell your daughter that she is right. That humans really can fly. You started the conversation with what amazing creatures ducks are, that they can walk on land and swim in lakes and soar through the air. Water fowl are all magicians, you say. All finefeathered wizards, and there is nothing else quite like them.

But she says, No, Papa, humans can do that too. The magic is just different. Instead of wings and webbed feet, we have planes and boats, wheelie shoes and pogo sticks. But we can walk and swim and soar. The magic is still real.

In your hands, dear reader, you hold a book of magic. As you read these words, you might be soaring through the air like the magestic and sorcerous duck or waddling from pond to pond in search of snails (also like the duck), but the magic always remains.

Each of the four poems and seven stories in our January Issyou has been written in second-person POV, so each piece is about you and you and you. Let each one take your hurting heart into its tender hands. Feel their magic and walk with us, swim with us, soar with us. Feel the rain on your face. We need it now more than ever.

And thank you as always, dear reader, for reading,

Leon

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Leon Perniciaro
Editor, Haven Spec Magazine

© 2026 Leon Perniciaro