Size / / /

The Horseshoe Spread

Ten of Anvils

Past Influences

Engines of desire

roaming the lost highways

of muscular youth.

An agrestic collage

floating in a fishbowl.

The inversion fields

of an autodidactic summer

obsessed with guitar solos.

The pearl-handled revolver

prominently missing

from the oak mantel.

The Andalusian Dog, Major Arcana 12

Current Situation

The bewildered man

urges the palomino

up a burning slope

despite the handicap

of a thrown shoe.

Beneath a turgid moon

frenzied by outlaw pollen

the wings of a bird

echo in the corridors

of skyscraper dreams.

Traces of the alchemist

are found lingering

in the accidental streets

and forlorn curio bazaars

of a tourist Mecca.

The Edwardian Lion, Major Arcana 23, Reversed

Future Avenues

Red veins in a yellow sclera.

A long tale

of the cartographer's

miraculous fountain pen.

Extraordinary fireworks

in fields of feldspar and lace.

Nympholepsy discovered

in a reflective lake.

Proteus, Major Arcana, 9

Courses of Action

Enter with

the sun shot brilliance

of a polished knife.

Listen to plane crashes

on the acoustic gramophone.

Adjust the rearview mirror

until you see apothegms

swirling in your tailwind.

Swallow the chugging

freight train of your own

insistent verifications.

The Ten of Staves

Attitudes Of Others

The astronomer

on the far side of the moon

has never seen the Earth.

The aging ingénue

maintains her innocence

despite an immodest décolletage.

Your Dutch uncle

throws a surprise party

for a decadent valley.

The taxi driver

agrees to take you

to Lithuania.

The Knave of Clotted Cream, Minor Arcana

Obstacles To Overcome

The tautological torture

perambulated in

the calculation of ∏.

The borders of peripheral vision

as delimited by the right

hemisphere of the brain.

A towering bricolage

of torn ligaments

and distended limbs.

A Berkhausen dirigible,

circa 1937,

from the airfield at Dresden.

The Falling Sorcerer, Major Arcana 7, Reversed

Possible Outcomes

The archipelago of dream plastics

already ancient

in its pocked decay.

Outrageous success

in the arms of a statue.

Two griffins

resting couchant

before an empty throne.

Three spent shells

on the library carpet,

next to the broken flounder.

The hooves and bit

and the charred bones

of the burnt palomino.

A locomotive

arriving at the station

without its tender.

Whimsical viaducts.




Bruce Boston is the author of forty-seven books and chapbooks, including the novels The Guardener's Tale and Stained Glass Rain. His writing has received the Bram Stoker Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Asimov's Readers Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You can read more about him at www.bruceboston.com and see some of his previous work in our archives.
Current Issue
22 Apr 2024

We’d been on holiday at the Shoon Sea only three days when the incident occurred. Dr. Gar had been staying there a few months for medical research and had urged me and my friend Shooshooey to visit.
...
Tu enfiles longuement la chemise des murs,/ tout comme d’autres le font avec la chemise de la mort.
The little monster was not born like a human child, yelling with cold and terror as he left his mother’s womb. He had come to life little by little, on the high, three-legged bench. When his eyes had opened, they met the eyes of the broad-shouldered sculptor, watching them tenderly.
Le petit monstre n’était pas né comme un enfant des hommes, criant de froid et de terreur au sortir du ventre maternel. Il avait pris vie peu à peu, sur la haute selle à trois pieds, et quand ses yeux s’étaient ouverts, ils avaient rencontré ceux du sculpteur aux larges épaules, qui le regardaient tendrement.
We're delighted to welcome Nat Paterson to the blog, to tell us more about his translation of Léopold Chauveau's story 'The Little Monster'/ 'Le Petit Monstre', which appears in our April 2024 issue.
For a long time now you’ve put on the shirt of the walls,/just as others might put on a shroud.
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