Demolish first the false dichotomy
of clotted darkness threatening moonlight.
That one is sane & holy in our sight,
the other neither, merely seems to be
(on close analysis) a privileged view
of questionable worth. This shadowed text
might shelter its fair share of terrors, true;
but who are you to say so? Might the next
dark angel's radically alternative
perspective not apply as well? Efface
hierarchical assumptions, & embrace
that arbitrary madness which still lives
between these penciled lines of dusk & dawn --
the last postmodern haunt of chaos-spawn.

Ann K. Schwader lives and writes in Westminster, CO. She is an active member of SFWA, HWA, and SFPA. Several of her poems have received Honorable Mentions in Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, and she is a multiple Rhysling Award nominee. Her first full-length collection has recently been published by Hive Press. Heidi previously reviewed L. Warren Douglas' The Sacred Pool for Strange Horizons.