The Strange, Wild Provenance of the Brave Tails There was this owl wizard, Finagler, who kept starlight in an inkpot. When he dipped his beak in it and wrote upon gravestones, whatever lay dead jumped up from the rooty marl scribbled with worms and danced like children on hot sand. Over his shoulder, in the […]
River of Stars, Bridge of Shadows
Deri woke gently. Leafy shadows and flashes of forest light dappled the passenger cabin. Within her shaded hammock, she peered through lashes into a green glade of dewy fronds and somber trees. A white snake watched her from the far side of the cabin. In cobra-pose, swaying ever so slightly, it fixed her with hooded […]
Mauka on Mars
“Mauka on Mars means toward the mountain.” The tour guide directed the group’s attention to the colossal shield volcano astride the wide, cratered land. “Olympus Mons. The largest mountain in our solar system.” Alpenglow lit the sprawling volcano, illuminating in pink pastels jagged rimlands along the caldera. “The first people on Mars remembered the greatest […]
Death’s Head Moon
Death’s head moon—spook talk I first heard from an Irish Gunnery Sergeant in Nietzsche’s War at a place called Belleau Wood during the battle of the Marne. Looking more porcine than human with his hog jowls, tiny and hard hog eyes, bristle-cut gray hair, and large mouth curled at the corners to a hog sneer, […]
What the Warrior Angel Said
What is a warrior angel? A defender of the human spirit. Over the years, I have encountered demons and angels. The demons always say the same thing: “You are a factory for the manufacture of excrement. You are a pylorus of endless hunger. I know you, you world of multiplying bacteria. Awe of maggots.” The […]
Bright Moment
You are deep in a northern forest covenanting with spirits that lift into mist from an ancient tarn. They show you a treasure. Buried in the rock-flour milled by a Pleistocene glacier, a duck egg fossilized black fits your sling perfectly. (It’s a dream; you have a sling!) You spin and release, and the egg […]