The Lorelei Signal

Let Me be Brave

Written by Maia Brown-Jackson / Artwork by Lee Ann Barlow

All I ask is

let me be brave.

Please, let me be brave

when I face the end,

on my feet with open eyes

ready for what comes next.

Let me do good—

no, don’t let me, just don’t stop me.

I’ll do good all on my own.

I’ll try to save the world and

I’ll fail and

then when I need to stand back up again,

please,

let me be brave.

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Maia Brown-Jackson began writing nonsense when she was four and never really stopped; now she can’t help but bleed printer ink. She graduated from the University of Chicago with honors and the Fletcher School with a Masters of Law and Diplomacy. She currently works as a program analyst at the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

She has had poems published in Rising Phoenix Press, Havik, Other Worldly Women Press, The Toast (humorous haiku), Anti-Heroin Chic, and Chunk Lit. She has published a story in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine and won an award for an episode of Return Home.