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 […]

WENCH, by Scott Hutchison   Nary a man doesn’t review the merchandise upon entering, wary eyes scanning tables and corners and me. They stride or stroll or slink in the door smelling of earth and blood, wet horse, rust, and a rankness all their own. They clap and call out Wench!–I pause, then saunter over […]

INHERITANCE, by Mary Soon Lee High above, the dragon watched the king and his young son approach through deepening snow. Flew down when they drew close. Her laughter boomed from the rocks like an anvil dropped on granite. “Back again, Xau? And bringing your princeling with you?” King Xau knelt, weaponless, crownless. He bowed so […]

THE ALLFATHER’S RAVENS, by David Sklar Beside the sleeping Odin, Memory yawps about the flavor of his master’s eye. And Thought, his brother, hungrily recalls, perched on the Well of Knowledge, gazing down at Memory pecking at the sodden orb, which sank beneath his beak, bobbed up again before he plucked it from the sacred […]