To My Lover by Sacha Hope
Gentle lover, how I wish to feel your embrace,
Your hands, your kiss, your face.
Dear lover how I wish time did not part,
How often do I ponder the life we could start?
Fearful lover, you turn from grace,
You push and retreat to an unknown space.
Harsh lover, you pained me in many ways,
Foolishly I stay.
Dog-loyal and convinced love unconditional being all you need,
Oh wicked lover! Do you see me bleed?
Aging by Sacha Hope
Woe betide winter eyes staring lifelessly at the wall,
Years waning, skin failing, hair greying.
What devilry is this?
Was I not in the cusp of youth but a few summers back?
Crows leave their feet,
Skin burn and sag,
The youthful bounce in shiny mane replaced by crackling straw.
When did vision become foggy?
When did it become effort to play?
Why would youth not stay?
Woe betide those poor fools seeking,
Desperately clinging to fleeting spring days,
For we all must surrender to winter and if we are lucky,
Being graced with age, golden and sage.
UnCommon Origins presents 22
depictions of moments on the
precipice, beginnings both beautiful
and tragic. Fantastical stories of
Creation, Feral Children, Gods and
Goddesses (both holy and horrific),
and possibilities you never dared
imagine come to life.
Including stories from some of the
most talented Speculative Fiction and
Magical Realism authors around,
UnCommon Origins will revisit the
oldest questions in the universe:
Where did we come from?
and
What comes next?
Featuring:
The Hanging Gardens of Brooklyn by
Rhoads Brazos
Aplanetary by Holly Heisey, Author
Glass Heart by Sacha Hope
Cultural Gleanings by Deanne Charlton
Fringling by J.D. Harpley - Astral
Scribe
Poseidon's Tears by E.L. Johnson
The Curl of Emma Jean by Michele
Tracy Berger
The Price by Samuel Peralta
Growing Simon by Jo West
The Terrible Discovery of Professor
Charles Cooper by Jonathan Cromack
The Last Star by D.L. Orton
My Darlings by P.K. Tyler
The Tombstone Man and the Coming
of the Tigress by Nillu Nasser Stelter
In The Periphery by Erica Ruhe
Exhale by Laxmi Hariharan
Ifrit by Brent Meske
Swim With The Beavers by Robert
Allen Lupton
The Least Child by Daniel Arthur Smith
Consciousness by Zig Zag Claybourne
Her by Rebecca Poole
The Apple by Shebat Legion
Becoming Mage by Melanie Lamaga
Dear Little Rat by Sacha Hope
Dear little rat, bitey and knowing
The furrow on yellow teeth glowing
Blood newly drawn as it drips coppery rich at dawn
Dear little rat the pain of pleasure you bring
Falling, tumbling, dead by broken swing
Dear little rat you know just how deep to bite
Make me leap in fright
High pitched wailing
Arms flailing
Silent screams begging for sweet release
Teeth gnawing, sinews snapping
My dear little rat yapping in pleasure
My treasure
My heart treasure
Ever under pressure from gleaming teeth
My dear little rat, sweet little brat
May you go splat
Sewer rat by Sacha Hope
Ever scurrying, searching, needing patches of sweet light
Rat, mottled and rotten, scurries from the latest fright
Demon gloom in the sewers below
Lurks a threat all to known
Yet rat i be and abandon ship
Climbing dank, slimey stone, almost reaching that desired light
Slipping, falling, squealing with all its might
Sewer rat, dazed with fright, scampers
Refusing to embrace the dark yet never obeying light
Sewer rat ever race in unknowing twilight
