The bandersnatch impatiently rakes claws across my door until I open up. The last of his kind, the beast has sought me out, sensing his end is nigh. “I believe you to be the fabled artist so formidable that anything you paint comes to life,” he says. “I want you to render a mate for me, so I might breed and my kind might live to see another age.” “Oh, sorry,” I reply with a neutral expression, though irritated by the gouges in my door. “I look like the artist,” I say, “but I am not him. I’m actually proof of his mastery—a copy sprung from a self-portrait he did a few years back.” The bandersnatch lowers crimson eyes in defeat, then murmurs, “I don’t suppose you know the artist’s whereabouts.” I shake my head. I ask the bandersnatch if he wants to visit. I have leftover cake from a birthday party, and by myself I can’t eat it all. “I know the feeling,” the bandersnatch mutters, before following me inside.

Noel Sloboda is the author of the poetry collections Our Rarer Monsters (2013) and Shell Games (2008) as well as half a dozen chapbooks. He has also published a book about Edith Wharton and Gertrude Stein. Sloboda teaches at Penn State York.