It seemed forever ago when I first came upon him, his serpent tail tucked between his legs and his three heads drooping in unison. He was a frail thing then, small and sickly, his obsidian fur patchy and squirming with maggots. He lifted one head as I approached, his mind too far gone to register fear. He simply stared ahead with those hollow eyes as I removed the chain his parents had placed arou...

When I was little, I laid outside and stretched my arms up to the sky to touch the great moving clouds rushing past. As streams of dewy mist trailed between my fingers, I heard my mother calling anxiously for me on the deck below. The sky, wide and limitless, frightened her, and she forbade me to ascend the bow. “We were made from the ground, and to the ground we return,” she cautioned. But I was ...

Beyond my reflection the heat sticks to the glass like honey but I’m freezing in my branded vest. My bare arms feel naked and my farmer’s tan exposes me. I lift my heavy eyes to watch the clock, the air presses down heavier with each tick. The chorus of a hundred screens whisper taunts at me from across the room, some buzzing about like wasps, some large, stationary, waiting for activation.

Peo...

Wait for me, I’m coming

Wait, I’m coming with you

Wait for me, I’m coming too

I’m coming too

- Wait for me (Hadestown)

How far will you descend into the pit, little brother, before you realize that only silence lay waiting?

You feared silence since you were a babe in the bone crib, gyrating to it with your pudgy fingers outstretched and conducting some hidden ensemble. Your essence was hard to c...