• sharp

    all these sharp objects tempting
    of the thorn words piercing lips
    to suture and to bind and to seal
    away razor cantrips in sting

    dawnblade dancing broken wrists
    to pirouette to pain and thrust
    for scarlet upon the snowdrops
    at least, they will say, he had good cause

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    sharp

  • casting runes — 23feb26

    uruz
    slag cooling in drizzle grey
    trampled & gone back to mud
    under the muscle ache

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is uruz. The rune is named after the now-extinct aurochs, a wild ox and has become associated with standing up to challenges, having both confidence and courage, stubborn tenacity, and boundless strength and health. Uruz is alternately associated with the more raw elements which include rain, primordial potential, and the slag/dross cast away during the making of iron.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.


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  • Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #1: Cold Case

    episodic short fiction | a Vivian Locke noir

    AI generated image at Michael Raven’s direction

    It takes a lot of nerve to slide uninvited into my booth when I’m halfway through a bad week and a worse cup of coffee — it could have just as likely dishwater as coffee by the sheen reflecting my mug in the surface. Usually, I’d just tell the stray to take a hike. But the guy smelled like burnt ozone and sheer panic, and before I could even complain about the static-charged puddle he was leaving on the seat across from me, he slammed a frost-encrusted attaché down on the cracked and stained laminate.

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  • Rebooting fiction prompts

    Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

    The last few prompts that have intrigued me enough to write about have a wee bit of a problem when it comes to the stated goals of including more prose fiction to this site.

    As I work on the barebones outlines and start making headway into the actual writing of the stories based on the prompts, I discover that they are regularly exceeding the length of what folks normally consider to be flash fiction (<1000-1500 words by most standards; my personal limit being <2000 words).

    With only the beginning scene for the occult noir story the prompt handed me last week, I am already at 1000 words, which makes it hard to have a middle and end in the next 1000 words. To complicate matters I only have the vaguest notion of where the story might end up, so it could easily be quite a bit longer by the time I’m finished.

    But I’m enjoying this world that’s coming into shape and I don’t want to rush the story just to fit in with an arbitrary limit that no one but myself is imposing on me.

    So, first-off, I will stop calling those prompts “flash-fiction prompts” and just call them “fiction prompts”.

    Secondly, due to the added length, I’m going to post fiction offerings longer than flash-fiction lengths in episodic format to keep the posts within the average attention span. Plus, this particular story will benefit from the technique of employing mild cliff-hangers. I probably won’t post an episode daily when I do this, but I will try not to let it go longer than a week between episodes (I’m also taking additional editing steps that are not common to my posted fiction).

    I also have a rough outline of a story that I may pursue for Jolene’s prompts, and that will likely also exceed my original limits (if I share it at all, it depends on if my take on the humorous tale feels right when it is done).

    Just letting everyone know where my head it at and explaining my thought processes. The first episode from the files of Vivian Locke will post later today. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.


  • let love electra

    tied to sky at
    bailing wire
    in rust scent &
    tainted taste
    everyone wants
    to go to a heaven
    all wrapped
    here in arms
    & rags
    but no one
    will let love
    electra

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