SHAFT TOMB, by Ann K. Schwader     In far Saqqara, countless faithful wait Upon their earthly gods who fared ahead As Westerners beyond the judgment gate, Emerging justified. These patient dead Partake unknowing of a power old As moonlight on the desert.  And as cold.   Stacked in like coffined cordwood ages deep, Such […]

HOW THE ROSE PRINCES CAME TO LIFE, by Elizabeth R. McClellan, artwork by Andrea Alamona       Witching is about knowing. Though we keep cats, a mouse with a message has amnesty unquestioned by familiars,   for mice get in everywhere and gossip like ravens, with less crude sniggers. They do not trust us, […]

THE BOWSPRIT MERMAID AND THE STEMHEAD DRAGON, by Katherine Quevedo, artwork by Simon Walpole     From wooden mouths above the deep, From oaken tongues upon the swell, When figureheads arouse from sleep To greet each other’s ships, they tell The tragedy of the bowsprit mermaid and the stemhead dragon.   Two sculptures clad in […]

RECOMPENSE, by Gerri Leen, art by Karolína Wellartová     Golden mare No rope shall hold you Now that you have Run your last battle I will take your killer’s horse— A lacking replacement But willing with the right touch— As our enemy bleeds out From a hundred small wounds A lingering death As compensation For […]

AMONG THE SCYTHIANS, by Deborah L. Davitt, art by Simon Walpole, audio by Deborah L. Davitt         Copper, so expensive, so rare— did you know that the sunbright ore only comes from a distant island in a sunbathed sea we’ll never see, where it’s so common the people there walk on streets […]