Sing! Oh Ravening Beast!
Chapter One: In Grief's Wake Sweetgrass Twined knelt before his father's open grave. Rivers Twined's head peeked out from the crimson and violet abbexi boughs piled over his body. His horns had been shorn off, pale stumps on a pallid, wrinkled...
slutever: a found poem of her words
slutever no one on this earth understand none get me im one woof in a sea of experiential static use it. i often feel like the entirety of human experience could be expressed as a hodge-podge of electromagnetic energy charging...
THE BODY AS ITS OWN HOSTAGE
My nerves the orchestra none hear. Freeways of fire make me try to gnaw hands to paste. The kitchen burn that melts and cooks my skin till juice beads along my arm is nothing. Skin sizzles, I don't feel it. I feel only talons that rake my ribs,...
Family Secrets
White cedar trees in every direction, that's how Leanna knew she was home. The tall, spindly things always made her imagine Earth as a porcupine--the trees its needles. But it was the smell of cedar, mixed with the scent of dirt, that really got to...
In Another Life Pt. 6
Something solid nudged her back, getting Liolyn to stir. She lifted her wings, which had been coiled around her in her sleep, to see Sirtas' head hovering over her. "Lily?" he whispered, "What's wrong?" Catch released, Liolyn sprung up and hugged him...
Back Alley Breaking
Sami liked to linger about the guild hall, watching adventures come and go, waiting on her next mark. She watched its marbled entrance from the outer patio of a nearby saloon. Over a snifter filled with an amber mead, she waited for one to...
IN THE CITY WHERE THEY PAVED THE ROADS WITH OUR TONGUES AND TEETH
There's a body In the body: the teeth of a piano Someone has stolen the rest of the piano If our body was stolen would you run from what stood in its place: ivory keys and claws and pinions and beak and talons and fangs snarling...
Until the Hunters Come
Kifka died the moment the chain of his dragon's harness snapped. Three days prior he spotted the link that had been filed away, but thought he'd have time to fix it--now the pitch of the air changed. Born by the buckles and hooks tied to the harness...
Programmed to Please
Ralsei wanted to sleep in his own bed, but with the elevator still under repairs and Queen and Lancer blocking the stairs up to his room, Ralsei settled on just sleeping in Kris's. Of course, he might have politely asked Queen and Lancer to move, but...
Under the Willow
Growing up, my family had this mulberry willow tree that grew out in our front yard around a scrubby garden. Mom called it Cousin Itt--you know, like the Addams Family? It had its trunk, and its branches went up and came down like a fountain so thick...
A Shark's Lover
Elly heard Marshall's door open. She called from their shared kitchen, "I'm making breakfast!" The smell of already brewed coffee called to her, but she managed to keep her attention on the pancake she just flipped on the griddle. Already strips of...
I'll Be Your Everything
That same dream again. He spiraled in a dark space, unable to hold onto anything. An owl, massive and feral, would creep on its legs to him. He held out his paws. The owl spat something gangrenous and awful out into his padded palms. It was his. Of his...