2005 - Vol. 2, Issue 2

Anja drifted over the plain, riding a disc of silver light. Icy wind bit through her sheepskin vest, finding every hole. Her fingers felt stiff as twigs. Her dangling feet were doubtless frozen, though she couldn't feel them.

Sling in one hand, stones in the other, Anja searched for prey. Nothing but pale grass and paler sky. Sighing, she tugged at her trousers, trying to rearrange her useless limbs so they looked less like something hanging dead on the butcher's hook.

She almost missed the swift movement. A quombat! Anja swooped in close enough to send the frightened rodent scurrying toward a projecting rock. Readying her sling, Anja waited. The plump quombat was an easy target, but not what she was after.

stiffening joints may be the first indicators.
unrelieved, even in Atlanta's sun.
you may notice patches of dirty residual snow;
at first, these will be restricted to dense
subarboreal shade.
by the middle of August the snow will
carpet the north sides of buildings.

With distorted spasm our cosmos
expands in continuous creation.
Fresh space grows at 64 kilometers
per second. Distant galaxies are
quietly receding. Andante, legato,
the slow music of the universe.