Month: August 2022

  • The meek shall inherit the earth

    The meek shall inherit the earth

    A woman dies in Palermo. Thofania has poisoned her husband, and others, but her name gathers flies. It is her goddaughter’s that drips cold, colorless, into folklore. Giulia sells cosmetics. Her bestseller gets rid of unwanted blemishes. It is Aqua Tofana, a tincture of tin and arsenic. It kills in four doses. The doctor dismisses…

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  • How Many Snouts

    How Many Snouts

    an adaptation of Hecuba & Hecate If I had been weaving when the ghost came for my daughter, I might have tangled him in my threads and pushed him up into my tapestry of Troy as it was before the fires ruined it and stank up my wool. Wouldn’t that vex him. Me, too, a…

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  • Bites, Jan.

    Bites, Jan.

    The news was doing animal videos, so Jan decided to make pancakes. They came off golden-brown, and the humidity was low enough to open the front door and let a flowery breeze through the kitchen. Jan sang over the stove, flipping the last pancake and swallowing phrase to phrase. The cinnamon made her salivate. And…

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  • Wakers

    Wakers

    edited from “The Prophet Before” (Jan 2021) LUCIFER God was alone in His knowledge. He carved the spheres of the universe and deserved something all Himself. While he birthed all manner of creatures, his true child was Conscience. He hid the child within the fruits of paradise and adored their fatal sparkle. The heavenly host…

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  • The Academic

    The Academic

                Medieval medicine take up a whole shelf. Splendid. Not one, single book can give you a comprehensive rundown. Twenty will tell you the same thing, slightly rephrased, so you’ll think you’re learning but you’re only aging. Having never been to the reference floor, you’ve been picturing a wooden stand under a spotlight: on it,…

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