Size / / /

"They're known throughout five systems, now, these rare

baguettes of Earth—unutterably blue

as that sad legend's skies, the shattered hue

of starlight failing. Diamonds everywhere

lose fire beside them; kings & trophy brides

alike demand them. What more need be said?

Choose profit. Or choose principle, instead,

but understand those rumors were denied

by almost every government concerned."

That's when the outworld trader turned away,

his features pale … & flaming in his mind

the holocaust those strange ships left behind:

whole nations razed to carbon in a day,

his lover's last blue gaze before she burned.


Ann K. Schwader lives, writes, and corgi-walks in Westminster, CO. Her Lovecraftian sonnet sequence In the Yaddith Time was published by Mythos Books in 2007. Her work has appeared in Mythic Delirium, Tales of the Unanticipated, Dark Wisdom, and elsewhere, and has received numerous Honorable Mentions in Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. She is a member of SFWA, HWA, and SFPA. You can find more of her work in our archives, in Strange Stars & Alien Shadows, Horrors Beyond, The Weird Sonneteers, and Architectures of Night, or on her website.



Ann K. Schwader lives, writes, and volunteers at her local branch library in Westminster, CO. Her most recent poetry collection is Twisted in Dream (Hippocampus Press 2011). Her dark SF poetry collection Wild Hunt of the Stars (Sam's Dot Publishing, 2010) was a Bram Stoker Award nominee. She is a member of SFWA, HWA, and SFPA. Her LiveJournal is Yaddith Times.
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