THE TAMING OF THE BEAST, by Brinsley Gale: He rode through darkling forest mere, feeling that the dawn was near And closed his eyes to banish fear; he rode to slay the beast. The Dragon slept within his keep, tossing in a dreamful sleep By little left of a village sheep, remains of last night’s […]

THE SWORD, by Cullen Groves: OSWULF: Well, sword, how much of foemen’s blood have you drunk, And into how many breasts have you sunk, Deeper sunk than Love’s black honeyed darts? I bare another breast before your blade, Take it! Bite deep that I might be unmade, To lie in sleep’s surcease. SWORD: It matters […]

THE SUCCUBUS, by Colin Heintze: the beat of wings, I pray an owl is cause enough to cower a woman-thing both fair and foul visits me each evening’s glower how many bargains, devil-struck how many hands that wicked fruit would pluck from serpent-coiled boughs to feel her breath against my ear to hold her warmly […]

FORTUNE-TELLER, by E.L. Schmitt:   A fold of painted cards across a rune-scribed palm. Inked in black and red, she tells his future nights. Across a pampered palm nails skitter, slip and show. She tells his future now in swirls of breath and song. Eyes skitter, slip and sting, blind in the fire-lit tent. Swirling […]

THE SHIP IN THE CLOUDS, by James Hutchings: I was walking alone on a wet stretch of stone that the guidebook had claimed was a beach and the sea was as gray as my spirits that day and I sighed as if robbed of my speech. And it seemed as I sighed that the world […]