MANAGARM

MANAGARM, by Jennifer Crow, Art by Caterina Gerbasi

 

 

Moon-wolf snuffles at Ygdrasil’s roots, scent

of god and oracle rune-scratched in the air.

How long has this beast chased its quarry

across worlds and endless skies?

Since the beginning of the last end, it would tell

if it spoke like men, but instead it howls, and kills

more honestly than they, bone shattering in its maw

and blood soaking its fur—this is not

a metaphor, only truth ground into the dust

under its paws and lost to the ice-bound

fate overtaking the world. One night soon

it will snap its teeth on the crisp silver edge

of the moon, swallow chunks of crater

and lap up spilled light, leaving only

the deep night of end’s beginning, sated.

 

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Over the past quarter of a century, Jennifer Crow’s poetry has appeared in a wide variety of venues, from Asimov’s Science Fiction and Analog SF, to Uncanny Magazine and Strange Horizons. Most recently, you can find her poems in Star*Line and the horror poetry anthology Under Her Skin. She lives near a waterfall in western New York.  Follow her on Twitter, and check out her patreon.