I SHALL NOT DIE HERE (BALLADE OF A WARRIOR BOUND), by Jason M. Waltz: Pulled taut, Oh! so painfully taut, cold links stretched tight — chains draped in quantities self-wrought. Loathed, debased, abused — endless pains never dimming, never hiding darker stains of iniquities untold, retold, sold ado . . . All lost; empty favors […]

LAMENT FOR THE FATHERS, by Joshua Hampton: Heed me, Sons of the Fathers, huddled round the great hall’s hearth, let’s hear such tales of war and woe, of kin and kind unlike us, once told on false fiddles and lying lyres strung with catgut slanders, screaming sweet songs of dreadful deeds never to be undone […]

METTLE, by Scott Matthews: This climb must be my ending quest, glory paves the road behind. My trek onto this mountain peak, the last hill left to climb. Temptations many did I slake and oft’ my way was woe. That I might pass through yonder gate I’ve bested every foe. There came a time I […]

AMBITION, PURPOSE, OUTCOME, by  Charles Saplak: DAYBREAK OF THE APPOINTED DAY: And yet another soldier will beseech The Dragon for his vision; a timeward glimpse of truth, a precious deep thought chosen for him and him alone. Light’s long arrows silently fly, Chip the mountainside free from night’s dark, Yet Sir Michael has been awake […]

THE DANCE, by Shennandoah Diaz: He danced the dance a million times before. Slide right, twist, lunge, pull up. Each movement graceful — Each blow destructive. He lived for the dance. The exchange of steel, The giving of flesh and blood, Each sacrifice made in honor replenishing the soil And feeding the legends that sustained […]