![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lecanomancer-final-a.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There is no bottom to this river<\/p>\n
only floating shreds of fabric<\/p>\n
garments of lecanomancers<\/p>\n
before us<\/p>\n
warped with age<\/p>\n
with prophetical witnessing<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From the realm’s corners<\/p>\n
and crevices we came<\/p>\n
each dragging our distinctive<\/p>\n
dust<\/p>\n
worries<\/p>\n
baggage<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At this river rumored<\/p>\n
to hold answers<\/p>\n
we share<\/p>\n
histories<\/p>\n
horrors<\/p>\n
heartbreaks<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Prepare to dip<\/p>\n
beneath swift currents<\/p>\n
centuries of lore<\/p>\n
threaten to carry us<\/p>\n
away in the arms<\/p>\n
of a goddess<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
who strikes faster<\/p>\n
than mosquitos stings<\/p>\n
Foam and froth<\/p>\n
threaten books of<\/p>\n
prophecy we hope<\/p>\n
will guide us yet<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
even un-drenched<\/p>\n
their passages<\/p>\n
confuse<\/p>\n
contradict<\/p>\n
confound<\/p>\n
We empathize<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
embolden<\/p>\n
while seeking signs from<\/p>\n
sharp-scaled fish<\/p>\n
assess the angles<\/p>\n
jumped by glistening frogs<\/p>\n
ponder if any creature<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
is ever truly<\/p>\n
mer-mantic<\/p>\n
When dusk delivers<\/p>\n
new insects but<\/p>\n
a paucity of insights<\/p>\n
we dry off<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
still lacking answers<\/p>\n
nevertheless<\/p>\n
consoled by<\/p>\n
the closeness<\/p>\n
of others<\/p>\n
who understand<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n Devan Barlow is the author of the\u00a0Curses & Curtains<\/em>\u00a0series of fairy tales-meet-musicals fantasy novels, as well as two collections of retellings. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in various anthologies and magazine, and she was a 2025 Hugo Finalist for Poetry. She reads voraciously, and can often be found hanging out with her dog, drinking tea, and thinking about sea monsters<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A LEGION OF LECANOMANCERS, by Devan Barlow There is no bottom to this river only floating shreds of fabric garments of lecanomancers before us warped with age with prophetical witnessing From the realm’s corners and crevices we came each dragging our distinctive dust worries baggage At this river rumored to hold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue-66-archive","category-main","category-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4541"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4573,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}