LEGEND, by Colleen Anderson: Decrepit rust, creaking scales weigh heavily on ancient bones. Burdens scar where past dreams shone. Cries beneath corroding teeth. Clanking nails on frozen mounds, unfurled wings now molder closed. Fancy flights ended long ago. Weary sighs in cataract eyes. Wispy smoke, old brimstone breath, memories of golden flames, gone — defiant […]

WILL SWORDS RISE UP, by J.R. Sparlin: Will swords rise up from the mists of time? Swords, knives, helms tossed into watery depths — at the end of the world will they be reforged? Mist rising in wisps, forming hilt and blade Swords of fire and earth rusted away, ages ago in lakes long vanished, […]

THE NORWEGIAN FARMER, by Rob Mancebo: Down from the wilds of the mountains they ravaged, lawless men in a rough, screaming horde. In from his fields Sven Carlson came, and took up his shield, spear, and sword. All ‘round the district of Østfold they rampaged, daring any fool to resist. At the fjord bridge Sven […]

EVERYWHERE THE SERPENT SLAIN, by James Frederick William Rowe: The thunderous passage of heroic feet Has crushed under heel The skulls of serpents The hills were once alive With their slithering But no more For all are dead Slain in antiquity That we might live unmolested Safe and sheltered Freed of their threat But the […]

BEFORE THE VILLAIN, by Alexandra Seidel: Should I give up now because it’s fate? Should I bury the sword handed to me through seven generations of firstborn mages in the watery soil of the moor? in the coal-hot sand of the desert? in the soft black earth behind the house? The seer promised me a […]