SHADAKAR, by Barry King: Shadakar!  Shadakar!  Can you hear me? Your head, so heavy, so loose upon your neck. Shadakar!  Wake up! Ah, but the liquor has taken you away, Oh, Shadakar, Shadakar the mighty, whose weight of gold, whose thrice-heavy sword, whose swarm of spies, whose stolen life of luxury warms my bed. Time […]

ADVENT OF AN APOCALYPSE, by Bethany Powell: They are combing each other’s hair when the end comes. A raven’s poised to land in their linen standard and they do not jump when the horn sounds the finish. Instead, they make mazes of fierce braid and plait, or smooth out thin sheaves of gold hair, before […]

BURYING THE PLOUGHSHARE, by Bethany Powell: Failure — wide open failure, scent of hot dust and sunrays on the green of weeds baking where they’re harvested all together, walling this plot. The dark king’s warfare has salted the ground. This is expected. Nothing is coming up but the most perverse of weeds, grasses hard enough […]

LEGEND, by Colleen Anderson: Decrepit rust, creaking scales weigh heavily on ancient bones. Burdens scar where past dreams shone. Cries beneath corroding teeth. Clanking nails on frozen mounds, unfurled wings now molder closed. Fancy flights ended long ago. Weary sighs in cataract eyes. Wispy smoke, old brimstone breath, memories of golden flames, gone — defiant […]

WILL SWORDS RISE UP, by J.R. Sparlin: Will swords rise up from the mists of time? Swords, knives, helms tossed into watery depths — at the end of the world will they be reforged? Mist rising in wisps, forming hilt and blade Swords of fire and earth rusted away, ages ago in lakes long vanished, […]