Fangs and Claws

Winter has fangs and claws. My people have known this forever. It’s not winter so much, though, really, as it is what inhabits it. Lives in it. Hides in it. […]

What You Leave Behind

Winter doesn’t let you hide. The snow shows where you’re going; it shows where you’ve been. It covers and conceals, too, but only some things. The rest it throws into […]

Everything to Live For

My eyes open of their own accord. Darkness. Silence. My first awareness is in my chest, a hard round mass that feels ready to burst. Fear. Eyes close; open. Deep […]

The Teeth of Winter

Where I come from, winter is a savage thing. It’s not merely the cold, the snow, the ice that breaks tree branches and pipes and power poles like so many […]

Unearthed

My spirit lists at a negligent angle, propped now against bone like a fencepost unearthed and left to find support where it may. It will right itself, but not until […]

Enchantment

It’s a daily thing. Forget the slogan; half the state has no idea what it means, and the other half is busy trying to destroy it. There are places where […]

Old

We are conditioned to think of age as a negative. It’s not merely a bad thing-in-itself; it’s the not-thing. Not-young is not-manly, not-womanly, not-peak, not-prime. Even as adulthood gets further […]

Negative Space

There are days when it’s possible to see between the lines. Just a glimpse, you understand — portals don’t makes spectacles of themselves. They tend not to waste time appearing […]