This story is one of the few things I’ve written (as in ever) that utilizes rhyme and commas that are meant to indicate pause. So it’s more like poetry in that way.

The Midnight Leopard Spots Me is inspired by the woodblock artwork provided by Omar Musa (the image above is a detail). As this work of art includes words, I let his words inform how I approached the writing.

Here’s an excerpt of what he inspired:

The moon shone and sung and wrung through me, and my swarmed up clouds of memory. I flew above all the old worries and all the new doubts, and watched with eyes wide through and throughout.

}} Click* to access this story at Visual Verse.

Visual Verse: An Anthology of Art and Words, edited by Preti Taneja, Volume 9, Chapter 11, The Curved House, Kington, England, September 2022.