There will be no Chapter Ten Sneak Peek. I can't do it without spoiling the whole thing. I worked hard to build drama, tension, and surprise for the end of "Road from Nowhere" and I won't blow it all by leaking chapter ten.
I'm proud of it. At least I will be in a couple of weeks when it's published. I rewrote some of it today, but I'll get it just right by the end of August like I promised.
Until then, read "Cathartes Aura and the Apocalypse Zoo". Won't take you more than two hours. It's still free at Smashwords.com. If you've already read it, please write an honest review.
You did come here for poetry, and I thank you, so here's a little something:
Apples for Sale
“What lovely apples you have.” His face bugs
In their candy-fender gloss, all forehead
And cheekbones. “Says here: ‘Poisoned’. Is that French?
Some new hybrid?” She swivels in her chair,
Re-crosses her pulled-sugar legs, replies
Like honey stirred in tea: “I poisoned them.”
She swishes through the curtain of beads, slow
As a pendulum submerged. “Pesticide?”
She shakes her head, tents her fingers, and squints
Sideways and green. “Paralytic toxin.”
He wrinkles his forehead, lifts an apple,
Studies his reflection and looks beyond
To her posture and aura. “Already
I’m paralyzed. What will you do with me?”
Her eyes widen. She answers: “You’re my slave.”
He’s frozen to the ground. “What is my toil?”
“Your folly,” she responds, “if it serves me.”
“For how long am I indentured, My Queen?”
She spreads her hands, shrugs, walks back through the beads.
“The paralysis is voluntary.”
The sun descends, blushing into the hills.
A breeze builds to a gale, blowing wrappers,
And newspapers throughout the carnival.
One drop sideways in the dirt. Two then three
Then buckets of rain. He remains mortared.
She re-emerges from the beads, one word
On her tongue-moistened lips: “Voluntary.”
He shakes his head. “A kiss for antidote.”
The wind whips her hair. Rain runs down her cheeks.
She grabs him by the collar and cures him.
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