Category: writing

Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #3: The Kiss of Verdigris
an episodic Vivian Locke noir
AI image based on this work & created with Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven.
This is a serialized story. Start with Case File #1 here.
The walk away from a fresh corpse is always longer than the walk toward one.
The rain spat its static-kissed venom onto my trench coat, a thousand tiny drumbeats dancing off my shoulders before dissolving into the crackling cobalt-spark of the alley puddles at my feet. I slipped from the streetlight to shadow, leaving the spreading chalk outline of a problem for the boys in blue. That’s when it caught my eye — a sickly green stain creeping across my glove. The corrosion from the dead man’s identification coin had left its signature, thin, poisonous tendrils still foaming where they’d kissed the laminated identification papers. A dirty reminder of a dirtier business.
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28 Feb 26

aglow

endless in waiting
in wishing moths to
send pale of moon

night gardens aglow
fey motes dancing
your head leaning shoulders

28 Feb 26

casting runes — 27feb26
tiwaz
```
an old warrior wearies
of spear burdens
trudging up northern fells
antlers left under overhangs
call to rest a spell
```
A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is tiwaz, which is named after the Norse god Týr, and the second weekday (Tuesday) is named for the god. According to Norse myth, Týr offers his right hand to the wolf Fenrir, who bites it off when he realizes the gods have used the offering to distract the wolf while they bind him. The rune is typically considered symbolic of honor, loyalty and justice, as well as of sacrifice. It may be representative of discipline and faith. Some interpretations have associated the rune with the North Star.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
27 Feb 26
winter hearts
‘the father saved the mountain yonder,
i don’t suppose he was the one of yours,’
she said smiling before she froze
and turned an oily shade of rainbow
opalescent in her age of old
below they craved the market haunt
but through skins twilight kissed i called
down unto a sounding stained wood
thrust out instead of shore
this pain king rides swimming horse
dragging out to the dust of rain
in shattered wrists and waves’ refrain
underground calling all winter hearts
to strike in the below again
27 Feb 26

still, a singing

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

26 Feb 26

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 high
```
A 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.
25 Feb 26
Sunny Day Parasol Co. — Case File #2: Copper on the Take
an episodic Vivian Locke noir
AI-generated image by Gemini, with direction by Michael Raven
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.
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25 Feb 26
casting runes — 24feb26
sowilo
```
though skies still cast iron &
ice still lies scattered
across winter soil
butter spread on doorposts
grows softer each morn
```
A 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.
24 Feb 26

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 moons

23 Feb 26

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

23 Feb 26