WHEN THE LEGIONS WENT, by David Barber   Outside, the wolf-howl and the dark. Around the fire Old Alba tells the tale of how he got this very blade from the last of the Rome-men in the days of his youth,   when the ancient foe was rumoured gone, which his father – a man […]

THE NECROMANCER, by Ngo Binh Anh Khoa     The sun was lost in arrows pouring down As raucous cannons boomed incessantly, Barbaric cries would far and wide resound Amid the field drowned in a blazing sea. Fast rained hell-fires, rose repellent smoke; Fierce roars like savage thunders rent the air; Strained voices, joined in […]

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   […]