Ragnarok - VII
"I died not," Varr breathed shallowly, "I woke Midmorning, by a gentle brook. How far I'd skirmished from satanic swamplands I Had no surmise. Three days I nursed my wounds, And then I took the mission meant for Luke, To warn the Old Man. As I...
Ragnarok - VI
"In coolness of that evening we stood guard Atop the knoll our mastery had turned To barrow. As the hidden sun went down We watched the pit as does a mongoose, for The snout of the great serpent to appear. While there we watched we argued: How to...
Ragnarok - V
"Before the sun had crossed the pinnacle Of hours upon the sky's superior side And any nightward momentum had gained, The hall was emptying. The Old Man's words Reverberated still between hard stone Reproachful more the longer that we stayed. Our...
Ragnarok - IV
The day was long departed, and the night Was coming to adulthood. Outside slept The night breeze, snoring soft among the grass. Inside, the boxer felt the darkness close As if it were a change in temperature He had not noticed. "Hold on," he spoke...
Accompanied by Tornado Siren
Let us suppose that all things human fall. That topless tower and tin-walled hovel both Go down, that all the laws are soothless scrawl, That sons of man no longer care for truth. It has to happen sometime. Why not now? What mankind plants,...
Ragnarok - III
"These ruins have been empty for too long. They ring no more with scarlet laughing flags. They echo not the peal of sparring arms, Nor cries of joyful brotherhood of war. They were not always silent. Once they shone Undusty, undecrepit,...
Ragnarok - II
The sun was gone. The only light that shone Was a reflection off the fading sky, Yet faded not the gold out of the roof, For, at the touch of darkness, fireflies, Lit crisp like Christmas candles, Appeared and turned the leaves to paper...
Ragnarok - I
Somewhere it was autumn, and the trees Hung undecided, torn between the fear Of concrete skies and black obsidian nights And clung to fading leaves, yet still they felt A dark desire to let the summer drop, To scatter to the wind their...
Ragnarok - Prologue
"Amidst the journey of our life I awoke in a dark wood" - Dante Alighieri, _Divine_ _Comedy_ "In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade And he carries the reminder of every glove that laid him down Or cut him till he...
Blank Verse Essay on Intentionality in Queer Fiction
I will not say here, 'no more happy ends.' I won't presume to undercut the need For stories of queer heroes of queer worlds Where homophobia has never been. For gods of sunset, moon, and winter know That if no tale but such as these were told...
Ghost Town Story
September came and ate up all the grass. He took his weapons down into the plain. The leaves fell round the farmhouse in the pass That stood here once. (The chimney bones remain.) Some say he pawned them, needing ready cash ...
Autoimmune Scarring of the Myelin Sheath
The coming summer heat looks to be cruel As ever it has been. Grey autumn can Not easily come soon enough for me. And what an evil fate is ours, my love, That such embittered words should ring so true. That at the highest loft of light and...