Daniel Romo I WAS BORN ... A UNICORN I was born a unicorn: the only one with hooves in my family. Hide and Seek sucked growing up! My brother and sister developed into mythological gum-shoes, always able to track me down. And when they couldn’t find me, they’d dissect their ancient civilization pyramid projects and strategically place sugar cubes all over the backyard like irresistible equestrian landmines. I was a high school outcast. The teachers thanked me for already wearing my shiny dunce cap and repeatedly sent me to the corner. The students teased, “Are you really a unicorn or is your forehead just happy to see me?” (Though I was voted Most Likely to Star in an Animated Feature.) My wife only married me because she wanted to know, “So is true what they say about unicorns…” Now my daughter wants to bring me in for Show and Tell; take her for a ride in the classroom hovering above the Crayolas and the first grade haters. My son wants me to wear a top hat at his soccer games. How stupid would that look? The hot, trendy vampires have hijacked America’s hearts. I’m now a pop culture cliché: Hasselhoff of legendary creatures! I was born a unicorn, but I’ll die a footnote—my glowing mystique gutted from the sky, my tarnished horn sticking out from the ground. BIO Daniel Romo is currently an MFA candidate at Antioch University, but is transferring to Queens University of Charlotte in the winter. His recent poems can be found in WTF Poem, Metazen, Dogzplot, and Divine Dirt Quarterly. He was recently nominated for Best of the Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize. His first book of poetry, Romancing Gravity, is forthcoming from Pecan Grove Press. More of his writing can be found at danielromo.wordpress.com