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“Vincere,” she says, “or die.”—her first words to me (and her last to me, as I die on my beloved Anacapa Island). In her grass crown, her red-feather ruff (to match her scarlet teeth), and necklaced with the heads of Dodo, Laughing Owl, and Great Auk, she dances, dances, dances.Continue Reading

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The house was tall and white, a handsome porch stretching the length of the front in support of a balcony above. It was an old house, but it had aged well, supported by the inhabitants and the healthy soil beneath. That same soil supported a multitude of fruit trees, spreadContinue Reading

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A two-headed troll pushes through the trees and finds a heart. A heart as big as a boulder or horse. e heart there beating on the ground, bright red pinned in the grass in the moonlight. Akork and Bagork. One reaches but his other stays his hand. –I want theContinue Reading

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On the east side of town lived a human. This being was neither male nor female nor was this being sure where ze came from. No god was present to tell zir that ze came from dust, therefore the being, who was named W, assumed ze came from the water.Continue Reading

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They live in the eyes. At the edge of every field of vision they wait just beyond the periphery, ever eager and always hungry. They teeter on the edge of each glance, relishing the moment when a view shifts and they are free to perform their sole function. That whichContinue Reading

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happily never after   shadow fairies with pointed tails yeah like the devil their t-shirts proclaim ‘death saves’   as they dance through dark hallways yeah in my mind   i catch tiny glimpses mesmerizing phrases pulled backwards through ruby red lips forked tongues slither through my psyche   whisperingContinue Reading

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Note: This story uses the non-gender pronouns e / em / eirs and they / them / theirs for some characters. “There once was a monster who lived under the bed. The monster stayed there, and slept mostly, until hungry. Then the monster ate the child who slept above, andContinue Reading

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I. The forest darkens and I know you wander it. I hear bits of song, but without recognizable words—like the contents of my own head. Even in morning, no warbles of birds, only strange rustles (leaves on branches? Although they hang blankly in winter.) I hardly know you. I can’tContinue Reading