by Mari Ness

She dreamed herself back in the garden again, crying over the dead beast. It was all as she remembered it: the buzzing flies, the stink, the matted fur, the dying roses. Only this time, her tears washed the blood from his oh so soft fur, her kiss raised him from the dead, and her hands felt one beat, then another. And then she was in his arms, his paws running … Read entire article »

by Mike Alexander

Your head set on an ancestral server
lets the fables bleed from your lips to stain
silk coverlets — I’d swear to surrender

my kingship if I could to feed again
on your fabulous tales, your fantasies
as ornate as your strategies were plain.

I wanted to live as in your stories,
not droplet by droplet, not dawn by dawn.
I drank the wine whole with … Read entire article »

by Elizabeth Hopkinson

I think of her at all times. Each day when the sunlight teases me awake in yet another inn, in yet another land, her image comes back to me, just as I first saw her in my garden by moonlight. Her hair. The softness of her skin. The deep pools of her eyes, like tranquil gardens. So pure it breaks my heart. So perfect. … Read entire article »

by Daniel A. Rabuzzi

“The Suevi and other uncouth tribes beyond the Rhine report that mother-dragons have been seen carrying their drakelets by the nape, just like a cat does with her kittens; I have myself seen, at Aachen, two of the smaller kind of dragon groom one another in precisely the manner of cats.”

—Sulpicius Alexander, Historia, vol. II (c. 380 after the birth of Jesus)

[i.]

In the worm-cote, high above … Read entire article »

by Helen Ogden

We spat at him, scratched at his arms,
bruised his lump knees. A fitting welcome
for the muddy pup we didn’t want. Kept
him tied to the back door in the evening light,
slapped away his upturned hand. Shuddered. Bones
rattling, hair twisted round thin fingers. Inside
his family wanted for nothing.

The first night he heard them whispering,
Ayelo, ayelo come
to us over the land and we’ll
Read entire article »

by Shira Lipkin

1.
We saw him tip the wineglass,
Spill the drugged draught into his shoe.
We are not so stupid as they’d have you believe.

2.
The rustle of silk and velvet, chime of jewels
The soft leather of new dancing slippers
A secret smile, a secret door.

3.
Silver trees glistening in unnatural light,
In the silence beneath the earth.
Behind us, he breaks off a branch and thinks we do … Read entire article »

by Lisa Plowman Dolensky

Leaves coo n’ crunch
Padding down a path in winding wood
Wooed by thoughts of you
As I fall for you
In your favorite season of the year
Gold, amber, ruby and tiger’s eye brown
Jewel down sapphire’s sky
Tapping my shoulder
Each time I turn around
Wishing for the touch of your hand
Under swaying cathedral branches
Where sturdy Oaks arch and pray
Willows weep
Wild in peace
A … Read entire article »