ENCOUNTER AT MONS

ENCOUNTER AT MONS, by Ann K. Schwader, art by Caterina Gerbasi

 

(Belgium, 1914)

 

They’ll tell you angels came, or Arthur rode

from Avalon to turn the German tide

at our beleaguered trenches.  Naught besides

a miracle had saved us — one bestowed

all unsuspected.  Yet a few who saw

more clearly through that smoke & Belgian mud

roiled up around us knew.  Our fresh-spilled blood

had summoned thirsting shadows from the maw

of legend.  Not for us, but for the foe,

they ranged across that battlefield to claim

their prizes.  Snatching, scavenging remains,

they snarled at us with features bleached as snow,

revealing at the last their rightful name:

those Hunnish hags, the Choosers of the Slain.

________________________________________

 

Ann K. Schwader’s ninth poetry collection. Unquiet Stars, was published in 2021 from Weird
House Press. Arm is a two-time Bram Stoker Award Finalist, and has received Rhysling Awards
for both short and long form work. She was named an Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry
Association Grand Master in 2019. A Wyoming native, she now lives & writes in suburban
Colorado. Find out more at http://www.schwader.net/

 

Caterina Gerbasi is a transgender painter and writer from Argentina obsessed with grimy knights and nasty monsters. Also loves to dress in bright pastel purple. Her favourite color is brown.