As the classical era drew to an end and the ancient city’s prosperity gave way to want and famine so too did its careful philosophy give way to ungoverned speculation. Salons which had hosted arguments on democracy and familial responsibility now presented disquisitions on the nearness of the world’s end and the soul damage caused…

On a Stone, Linear X: The Only Known Résumé From the Capital City My name is Reggie. I build coffins. + Scroll One, Linear X: An Astrologer’s Supplication Mark my words: the weather will be peculiar, but that is not all. The sky will kick the ocean and the sun will bite you. All of…

All I ever really knew of my father was the back of his carved head. When he worked at the hospital he was in his early twenties, and I was still ten years away from being conceived. I never knew him. But I have always known him. He was fifteen feet tall with arm muscles…

Date: Sept 1, 2010 at 9:00 AM Subject: Stone Head Dear Prof. Gruber, I have recently come upon a piece which I think will be of interest to your research—a stone head. I was chatting with an acquaintance in his study and it caught my attention. He did not know the origin of the head,…

The rain stopped just as Betsy arrived at the door of her uncle’s building on West 23rd Street. She collapsed her umbrella and rang the buzzer for 4B. For a few moments there was no reply, but then, without a word from the intercom, the buzzer sounded and Betsy went inside. Her backpack was heavy…

1. You will be our archivist, the old men tell the girl. They smile wide. Fire shoots sparks into the corners of the room. Archiving is the most important of callings, the elder says, his face pitted with years. Without our history, we would have nothing. Outside the old room and the old old men,…

Composite metals and titanium. Found in the Ruined Land excavation layer. An object projected by exertion, often a weapon, considered between two instants in time. Sometimes canopied and locked, sometimes open to their wanderings. Often the object of their awe. Often a weapon, though also a monument, created in commemoration, a functional structure made notable…

The whores had always been there for the men of the city. They worked in the Flesh District, a narrow, dusty corridor framed by tall stone buildings where they draped their bare breasts and damp thighs over the windowsills for the men passing by. They were the soul of the city, the bloody beating heart.…

Three girls. Each sold to trades. The first the youngest to the glass woman who taught her to roll it flat to roll it round to melt the edges without seams. The second the eldest to the copper woman who taught her to hammer it until it shined and gleamed. The third the troubled middle…

From the dogmatic vade mecum of the passionistas, Epistles 29 – 45, commonly referred to as: The Joy of the Ecclesia As unseemly as the punishment regimen may appear, the integration of our enemies into the ecclesia is necessary for the higher vibration of souls. And so the celebration of the harvest and the subsuming…

He picked up her teeth after the smoke cleared in the gutter next to a dumpster. He’d watched where they rolled after he’d hit her. He’d never hit a bitch so hard before. Ever since the flashes started it seemed like everyone was a bit peeled back; he was no exception. Everyone walked around like…

  1. There existed a city. 2. The city was named Golden by its people, for their aspirations. 3. In the center of this city was a two-chambered heart. 4. In one chamber lived an industrialist. 5. In the other, an explorer. 6. They met in between. 7. The explorer liked to find things. 8.…