COLDER THAN MARS, by Andrew Crabtree   Mars is a god who loves the taste of it The bright red racing mortal taste of it So in his ring of iron he makes a war. In fields beyond the seven marble hills His men take arms to force strange kings to kneel. His sacred camp […]

THE PIRATE QUEEN CHING SHIH CONFRONTS HER DOPPELGANGER, by Kendall Evans   The sound of bells; swells of brackish water The harbor stench a dead-fish atmosphere— A bearded would-be pirate slight of build Standing on the dock in dreary overcast Applied one dawn to join the Red Flag Fleet   And take training on The […]

THE DOLMEN, by Michael Tilbury   Countless times were we berated and warned not to go near that hill where stands the great dolmen yet we, so young, stole away on a fine summer’s day and came upon that tomb but what we saw, unbeknown was only our doom shambling forth from that vast stone […]

NIGHTFOREST, by Andrew Stockton   There are parts of forests, As there are parts of minds, In which it is foolish to tread.   The horseman, strangely attired, a traveller’s smell, not knowing this land, reigned his anxious horse to a standstill. Above, colour bled from the sky: like a tired eye, its sallowness darkened […]

THE NORTHMAN’S DAUGHTER, by Joshua Hampton   Ever since my hair could take a braid, my dah showed me of swords and shields and spears sharp as dragons’ tails,