BEGGAR’S BELIEF, by Jon Byrne My real name is Ingo Delk, but those who are acquainted to me, and I mean acquainted as I have no friends, call me either Ur Tansdoki, or Doki for short, which in Massamic means ‘The Unsmiling One’. The name is apt, for in the world I inhabit there are […]

THE BLUE LAMP, by Robert Zoltan   Tis hard to lose a tattooed man, Six and one-half feet tall, I’d say, In shades of cobalt and cyan Within a sunless, cloudless day. But if into a shop you stray, Where statues and a cat you see, Beware then, lest you too fall prey To idol […]

AN ORACLE, by Ann Keith   Putting your concentrated might Into your spirit, you will fight The whole day long, and into the night, And all the night till dawn. Though the heavens rock and the clouds be rent And the driving icy rain be sent Against your face like splinters of flint, You will […]

THE ROYAL DOORS, by Eliza Victoria You fold your hands and talk of your sorrows. That is the only way to get through the day these days and the only way to get through the door. Oak and birch, painted silver, as large as a cathedral and just as heartless and empty. A face appears […]

A TALE AT BEDTIME, by Mary Soon Lee   Lie still and listen well. “Yes, Mama, I know,” said Prince Keng.   Before the dragons flew to King Nariz, before the time of demons, Batar was the greatest horse lord who ever rode the eastern plains, yet he thirsted for more power. So Batar fell […]