ASSAILING THE GARDEN OF PLEASURE, by Daniel Ausema, audio by Karen Bovenmyer To reach the master’s pleasure garden, adepts must follow the path precisely. Where it splits, adepts too must split themselves, must send their left halves down the winding left path and their right halves down the right path, which meanders in counterpoint. At […]

FOX HUNT, by Rebecca Buchanan, art by Simon Walpole It was a truth universally acknowledged among foxkin that humans were silly creatures. They built their dens of wood, rather than taking advantage of nice, natural holes in the ground. They had no fur of their own, and so they had to keep sheep and goats […]

INSTRUMENT OF VENGEANCE, by Howard Andrew Jones, artwork by Darian Jones “You would not think her extraordinary, to see her,” the musician told us. “She has few ornamentations.” His hand rose, fluttering. “My father once added small pearls along her bridge, but these I removed. For a lovely woman needs no extra ornament. Only a […]

APPLES OF THE GODS, by Jane Dougherty I walk through the orchard, taking the path between the plum trees and the blueberry bushes, touching the cloudberries and the bright clusters of hazel nuts. I let my wanderings take me to the pear trees, and then the apple trees, the most precious of all. In the […]

  OWAIN THE RED AT CASTELL DOLBADARN, by Nicole Rain Sellers, audio by Karen Bovenmyer, art by Simon Walpole North Wales, 1275 AD The infant moon swells full again, relentless, lonely wheel. Clouds asphyxiate this house swaddled in royal fields. Spent heather bleeds out honey and flocks surrender wool, betrayed as I, as powerless in […]