Wishing Well
I remember that one late August night, Watching the moths mob the lantern's amber Light, the summer wind playing with the flame, Your ebon hair, swaying, caressed your neck. I saw you swallow. I envied your spit. You looked upward to the wild...
"Give Up The Love: A Conversation In Which We Have Already Heard Your Part"
"Give Up The Love: A Conversation In Which We Have Already Heard Your Part" You've said your peace, my brother, Now it's time to listen up: If we want to see tomorrow Then you'd best give up the love While I don't know what Heaven...
The River In The Mist
"The River In The Mist" The sudden glare was almost blinding in the dark burrow, like a portent of the coming dawn. Lifting the protective outer glass with her free hand, she put flame to the lantern's wick and shook out the match. The foyer had...
Untitled Poem
We crawl through moist humus like millipedes, Feasting on dirt and dead, crumbling leaves While striped skies cycle through violet hues, While time's kisses take the shape of a bruise. Endeavors wear the warmer years away, Reduced at last to...
"Victuals"
"Victuals" Salma was only halfway finished with her supper when the knock came. She froze, triangular ears perked high on her feline head until the visitor rapped once again, startling her into motion. Her shift had been over for hours, so whoever...
Gaki (poem)
Still waiting for a taste of something true In the maiden grass, chasing the fireflies, Thinking back on the last time you heard me Drink dew like a hungry ghost in the night. Oh, would that my shuttered words could grow wings And search this...
Poem for my Deceased Lover
Seven days had passed when I heard you died, A missive in the warm morning hours, dawn Rose, and no one said how I should go on, Or ford this moor without my only guide. Flown to space by what callous earth destroyed, I chase the long-flying...
A Gentleman of Strength
_A Gentleman of Strength_ _By Dwale_ It had been an ill-omened tournament. Ame's train had been delayed twelve hours due to unseasonal flooding, then he'd gotten lost between the station and the hotel. He'd been unable to get a cab and was forced...
The Darkness of Dead Stars
"The Darkness of Dead Stars" It was standard procedure that personnel awoken from cold sleep were granted four things: a bathroom, a caffeinated beverage, a meal and an hour to shake off the cobwebs. Ordinarily the cafeteria would have been all...
Poem for Children Wishing to Summon Evil Spirits
On Hallow's Eve, beneath the sky Take the implements described To some obscure, untraveled place, The knife, the flame, the words to say. A pentagram would surely do, But pick which symbol pleases you And draw it out with steady care, Then...
"Behesht"
"Behesht" When father died, I cleansed his remains and wrapped them in a sheet, then secured them in a sling I'd fashioned ahead of time. His thirty-five-kilogram corpse strapped to my back, I made the long climb up the dusty steel ladder of the...
Another Untitled Poem
Summer, season of hot insomnia, That much never seems to change at all. Laying awake in the red desert night, I shape woods from shadow and wait for fall. Ten years now gone, and who thought I would miss The songs of crickets, owls and katydids?...