Before the Raden Roro arrived at the Poison Court, portents warned of her coming. Comets spread across the sky in a lattice of rubies; courtiers slept badly and complained of feeling watched, and the Rajah fell ill and took to his bed. […]
We keep my sister in a corner of the sky. It isn’t true to say her bed is made of light and rainbows, and it isn’t fair to claim she is comfortable. Lightning chains her wrists, and I want to tell you that thunder is more afraid of her than she of it, she is that vicious. […]
The day I was finally visited by those three — their tall rigid silhouettes blotting the afternoon sun from their looming positions on the porch — I remembered my manners, after a momentary catch in my throat, and welcomed them into the foyer, where they filed past me with little to no acknowledgment […]
No one knows why. Her friends, who were with her at the time, walking around in search of Halloween costumes to wear to a party that weekend, theorize that it had something to do with gym class... […]
My limbs are stiff, my mind is eternal, my breath is life, and the worms come to their altar — what is there to tell? How I had gone in to discuss my retirement benefits but the section manager simply handed me more work? The company logo looming larger than life on the opposite wall? His heat hovering over me as I scrolled through the files? […]
Thanks to our patrons for supporting this issue: Kelly, Bear Weiter, Jessica Guptill, Maria Haskins, Elise Tobler, Julie Ireland, Alan Mark Tong, Lowry Poletti, Julie Stevens, Kevin Casin, Michelle Muenzler, Molly Tanzer, Thomas Ha, Lorna D Keach
