Issue 47
NewMyths.com
A quarterly ezine by a community of writers, poets and artists.
Issue 47 - June 2019
Dear Readers,
Potmakers and storytellers. Cultists and refugees. Dreamers, all of us...whether we're gazing at a starfield from the comfort of our holodeck-like balconies, or from our Viking village campfire, or from the vantage point of having barely escaped the ruins of the world we've known, hoping to start anew. If there's a common thread in this issue, it's that desperate hope and courageous dreams allow us to persevere and remember who we are, and who we once were.
Table of Contents
Fiction
To Hold a Soul by T. J. Berg
Mbuta (asked,) "Why do you wish to make pots, little reed?"
The girl shrugged without lifting her head. She said something too soft to hear.
"Speak up," Sweltil said.
"I like to see the places souls can go."
Walk Along The Shore by Evelyn Deshane
We stared at the radio instead of our view. Days, weeks, and months passed as we slipped under water.
But no one died.
"As our water levels rise, we still report the death count as zero. The Atavists, a spiritual group from the North, have started to stage demonstrations at the rising flood waters. We have the leader, Absalom Curt, here to tell us more."
"We have found the cure," he stated. "The water is the cure."
"For what?"
"Death. Decay. It saves us from the future by no longer giving us fear. Once we slip underneath, we are invincible..."
The Last Storyteller of Effable by Ronald D. Ferguson
"Health and happiness." Olaf Havardr, the storyteller, welcomed his audience atop the hill overlooking the misplaced village of Effable. "Gather round before the sun goes down. Gather round the fire for a story of giants, gods, and adventure. Gather round, children."
Trial of the Bull by Illimani Ferreira
Mina slept through most of the trip. She only woke up when she felt the gravitational jolt as the transport started altering its trajectory for the entrance procedure into the atmosphere of Aegean, the only satellite of Aldebaran’s only planet.
Flash Fiction
If You See Her by Patrick Hurley
I miss her.
When she visits, I know she'll love my new look. A network of sprinklers run through me like veins. I have over 140 different species of trees. All of it has been for her.
Beggar Moon by Leigh Janzen
When the Beggar Moon rides the sky, fat and golden-red as a daemon light, do not go down to the Beggar's Masked Ball.
Stay with me, your mother says, stay and sweep the floor.
Stay with me, your father says, stay and sit by the fire.
Stay with me, your brother says, for under the Beggar Moon the Beggar King will find you.
The Girl in the Mirror by Christina Sng
The girl in the mirror is not me.
For one, she is much younger with an unlined face. Yet she smiles and gesticulates just as I do, regarding me with such warmth, I wonder if we know each other.
The Puzzleist by Shannon Connor Winward
"There's just something about Pepsi in a Styrofoam cup. It's better than any other kind of Pepsi."
NonFiction
Tropes of the Western Fairy Tale by Emily Randall
“Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a princess,” or a king, or a woodcutter, or a miller. Such a beginning is familiar to us all, as are the stories that generally follow. Over the course of the tale, the hero will overcome hardships, deceit, and treachery; rescue the princess; and live happily ever after. At least, that’s what we expect to happen today. In the original fairy tales, however, “happily ever after” appeared rarely. For every prince who wins his princess, there are a hundred more princes who fail and die horrible deaths.
The Voyagers by Peter Jekel
Is life indigenous to the planet Earth or did it come from somewhere else? Could it be that are we truly aliens that originally visited in the guise of organic chemicals and possibly even microbes that evolved and eventually colonized this beautiful planet of ours?
Poetry
The Uncertainty Principle by David Barber
The Daily Freak Show by Bruce Boston
The Star-Farer's Wife by Jessica Jo Horowitz
No Fairy Tale World by Lisa Timpf
