i escher etch labyrinthine dreams
& crawl my cobwebbed understair
thumping feet on ceilings,
pounding fists in sand
empty-thoughted screaming
along the promenade while
their long gonnes fire rounds around
bloodsoaked murder in every sound
hammer march, hammer march
one two and two through
swinging scarlet soaks the gloom
and here i am, blind corner sitting
still singing of a time once free
Category: writing
still, a singing
casting runes — 25feb26
raido i left wide trails behind
the straight and the narrow
each rock felt under wheel
jolting the wain side to side
with joined pine creaking while
riding down to the last ford
from the up highA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is raido, which has been translated as “ride” and the implied “journey”. This may be spatial and literal in practice (a physical journey), or it may be more figurative (an inner/shamanic journey, i.e., útiseta). The rune is associated with cyclic motion and the movement of the sun. Some consider the journey represented by raido to be that of returning.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
Case File #2: Copper on the Take
an episodic Vivian Locke occult noir
AI-generated image by Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven Sunny Day Parasol Co.
Case File #2: Copper on the Take
This is a serialized story. Start with Case File #1 here.
Whatever happened down the street had a sound that scraped against the soul, even for this blighted patch of the city. More than my exposed skin prickled in the charged rain, thick with the scent of ozone and something fouler. Even a magically-disinclined Hollow like me didn’t need a gifted psychic to tell them that shriek was tied to the recent bagboy, not someone thrilled to be boosting a sports car. For one thing, no rubber burned to drown out the wee-hour drone. For another, the sound was less ‘joyride’ and more ‘soul-flaying’. Had that same sound clawed its way out of some window over The Red Door down in The Tenderloin District, my assessment might have shifted. I might have even paused long enough to offer a slow, dark clap of appreciation.
(more…)casting runes — 24feb26
sowilo though skies still cast iron &
ice still lies scattered
across winter soil
butter spread on doorposts
grows softer each mornA rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.
Today’s rune is sowilo, the sun. Sowilo is the source of enlightenment, for lighting the way and illumination. It is also called the “icebreaker” and gives power to an “attack”, ensuring success and/or prosperity. This rune also represents hope, the light at the end of a long darkness.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
night braille
i read the night braille
a chill breeze raises on skin
all fingertip & firefly slow
with a burning below
while your fingernail
stole away my breath
whisper in crushed velvet
while crickets fiddle
under full moonssharp
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 causecasting runes — 23feb26
uruz slag cooling in drizzle grey
trampled & gone back to mud
under the muscle acheA 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.
Case File #1: Cold Case
an episodic Vivian Locke occult noir
AI-generated image by Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven Sunny Day Parasol Co.
Case File #1: Cold Case
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.
(more…)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
