THE GREAT BEAR GOD, by Gary Every     The Siberian shaman sings and prays at this ancient place where the rocks wear faces.   The river cascades across the rows of stones, many of the boulders wearing human visages, features of geology and erosion.   This cliff above the waterfall resembles a gathering of […]

CHASE OF THE BLUE BLOOD, S.K. Naus   Torrid black clouds blistered along the heavens, Their bellies exploding with cold hard rain. Majesta’s cloak billowed around her and the horse she was riding Like a brazen red flame that could not be extinguished. “Ride on, Victory!” she urged the gray stallion whose ears stood at […]

WHAT YOU’VE BECOME, by Gretchen Tessmer   if wishes were horses? more like rooks and herons kings and beggar men— made weak by yellow-haze sloth sipped at the pond of mud-slick weeds and greed all fools in the face of temptation   I remember when you were brave and knew something of careful deliberation   […]

THE WASHER AT THE FORD, by James Matthew Byers   The hooded crow flew overhead, Confusion followed suit. Announcing menace, full of dread, Abiding her salute, The men below her in the field Engaged in arts of war Fermented furor, axe and shield, Dismemberment and gore. A side, so chosen in her jaunt, As Babd […]

DRAGON MOUNTAIN, by Mary Soon Lee   Then to the dragon mountain rode the scarred king with nine guards to shield him, closer than brothers. “What is this? Meat?” Li, captain of King Xau’s guards, chewed on a hardened lump from the way-fort where they’d changed horses. “Diseased pig,” said Leong. “Old dog,” said Atun. […]