Q: What would your animal totem be?
A: I don’t know if I would call them an animal totem, but I’ve always felt a strong affinity with magpies. I remember my grandmother teaching me to use them as omens (one for sorrow, two for joy) and even now, when I see them, I start counting. They may be known as thieves, but to me to me the act of writing often feels like thievery. Shiny objects are like good stories, to be looked out for and hoarded jealously.
Maud Woolf’s story “The Stranding”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 18 June 2021.
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