The life of a dove is not peaceful.

I should know.

The last ten years have been anything but kind and graceful and good. Nature is ruthless. Violent. A goddess of struggle and strife. I’ve faced the winds, stiffened my wings against weeping rain and angry weather. Hid from owls and hawks and creatures with sharp eyes who wanted me jammed in their sturdy jaws, white feathers torn and stained...

My vast, celestial arms

embrace the Earth,

my lonely lover.

She maps and names

the freckles on my shoulders,

elbows, hands;

I notice her striving

to understand me

and I smile,

until I see her blue

fading to gray.

My sweet Pandora,

please,

don’t burn yourself too far.

There are boxes you

can’t open,

wonders you just

won’t see,

and I’d hate to say goodbye

to the only living planet,

the only on...

Here I am now,

amid the moonshine and the

moonlight, the crowds and

the grandeur. I hear drunken

chords plunked on the organ,

clopping feet locked in a foxtrot,

women laughing.

And across the room I see his smile,

his shirt of sheer linen,

shining brighter than any of it,

unbelievably true.

His counterfeit glass is

balanced in his heavy hand

like a scepter;

he tilts it toward me,

and I feel my...

I am the lover,

with eyes tinted pink.

I give you my heart

for you have given me life.

Treat me well, fair maiden,

and know that I am yours.

I am the adored.

Being loved by you is kinder

than any simple act I’ve seen.

Men trip over my heart,

but you lift it up.

What goodness have I done

to deserve a love like yours?

I am the forgotten.

With a cracked heart,

I walk these soggy cobblestones,

wit...

Displayed on the screen was paradise.

Watercolor clouds hung over an array of violet mountains, veiling them in pastel sunset shades; between them were blossoming valleys; rich with spring flowers and rambling, crystal brooks; sparkling brilliantly as if their waters had been replaced with polished diamonds.  Through the spiderweb cracks of her phone screen, Heather watched herself dance in the d...

Where the trees parted, there was light.

There were narrow streets lined with torches, flickering in the midnight breeze; windows illuminated by butter candles and laughter; scattered constellations of campfires in backyards. And there were people around them, families and friends, singing and telling stories like an old country song Otto used to know and hadn’t heard in an enternity. _A civili...

It is mid August, the air is thick as blood, and the sky is blemished with melancholy clouds.  Thorpe watches them trudge across the sky, like tired soldiers returning from battle.

"I suppose you mean to frighten me, then?"  She smiles up at the man, eyes wide with mock innocence.  He raises the gun to her throat.  

"You think this is a game?"  She's running out of time, and they both know it ve...

They say I have a heart of gold,

But I don’t think that’s true.

For if I had a heart of gold,

I’d be loved first by you.

Instead my heart is silver,

Silver as loose change.

Meant to toss around and trade,

‘Til I’m lost down the drain.

My heart is silver steel,

As silver as a blade.

It’s cutting edge so sharp and cold

It scares Cupid away.

And since its love means friendship,

My heart’s stuck in...

Upon the misty cove,

two lovers sit,

their eyes celestial bright,

their hands entangled.

I watch them from my solitary

fortress in the sky, and

lament

that I am not them—

that I will never be them.

This sky-rock,

Earth’s puppet,

I shall remain, longing

for a love so human....

Birds circle overhead, shrieking their warnings as the storm picks up in swirling, malevolent gusts, stirring the sea so it folds in on itself. Land is near, thank the heavens if there are any, but the coast is so jagged it’s unlikely we’ll be able to land without being torn apart by the cutting rocks and the crushing waves. Though we hardly have the choice to continue on sea.

The raft jolts ba...