UNDERCURRETNS, by Jennifer Crow   My siren song answers the beautiful longing in you, the ache, the unspoken grief you hide like treasure or secret shame. The same sorrow beats in me, a pulse as steady as any heart. I learned this song for you, a lifetime ago and longer. I knew one day you’d […]

SEVENTEENTH LESSON, by Mary Soon Lee   Sunlight scattered like fire from the dragon’s wings as she landed beside Prince Keng in a rush of air and smoke, snow melting beneath her belly, beneath her clawed feet.   Keng bowed to her, willed his face calm. Two and a half weeks of lessons– he should be […]

GARUDA’S GAMBLE, by Colleen Anderson   What was I to do? Guarding those slippery slithering nagas who laughed their whispery laughs Thinking I didn’t know their mother duped mine over a black horse’s tail that I protected them from gods such as I?   I couldn’t help but eat a few snapping them in my […]

THE NIGHT BEFORE YULE, by Daniel Stride   Neath the Nothing Night of Yuletide Glassy snow caves gleam and glitter, Frozen fangs of frost protruding As the dismal darkness deepens. Over misty moors and mountains Whistle winds and wolves in wastelands, Shrouded shadows wander softly Bringing fear to beasts of burden. Ever since the solstice […]

THE PERSUADERS   we rise just after the heat of day has pressed life flat our deliberations inflating the indrawn breath of evening a cool murmur across the skies robes of scarlet, pale amethyst, robust plum we don against the encroaching night, realm of mystery and allusion   we gather darkness into ourselves Pluton’s immeasurable […]