annacates

The Atlantis Adventure:  Book IIChapter 1Vamira and Devin’s birthdays fell on the same month:  “hopeful April,” when new life first emerges after winter’s cold.  In his letters to her, she’d learned as much.  He’d told her everything.  Since she’d last seen him on Atlantis over two years ago, he’d resided with the elves at the Convent of the Sacred Elms, nursed back to physical, mental, and spiritual wellness after Oxgar’s attempt upon his life.  During that time, he’d remembered details of his past:  the village where he’d lived, the stories his father had told, the chickens they’d kept, and his parents’ murder at Southlanders’ hands.  He...

THE FROG KINGLance stood on the edge of Mogg Lake and gazed at the forbidden island in its midst.  Fog had dampened his sandy hair, and the cool night air, scented of bog algae, showed his breath.  Dressed in leather armor, he’d stashed a dagger in a strap at both boots, and a broadsword swayed along his hip.“Haunted?  Oh, certainly!” Lance said, peering through the mist at the ancient ruins in the middle of the island.Sometimes at night passersby might note a mysterious light burning in the windows of the ruins, and at other times, screams of pain echoed about the lake.  But Lance, bastard son of King Alistair’s first mistress, had a rati...

MAD LIB:  A POEM     (fill in the blank)God/the devil _____ (verb) with a(n) _____ (noun) of_____ (noun)— the _____ (adjective) _____ (noun) of a(n) _____(noun)   _____ (verb ending in “ing”) us before _____ (noun) _____ (verb) _____ (adjective)— a _____ (noun) _____ (adjective) _____ (noun, plural) and _____ (adjective) _____ (noun, plural) of _____ (noun) only _____ (noun, plural)— our (adjective) _____ (noun, plural) _____ (adjective) _____ (verb) out the _____ (noun)--Previously published in Specs and included in the collection “The Darkroom:  Poems,” available at Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/A.-Cates/e/B006TGBCT2

THE SECOND COMINGPolitical smut overcasts the sky the dust bowl rushing across the plains while the white pines whip with the wind— a pathetic fallacy.Lobbyists hustle Washington, full of passionate intensity, tiptoeing into negative capability, the futility quivering.The world’s a troll that’s turned to stone. The poem’s a lie, a Disco Word Orgy that moons the sky now kingdom come.Read me! Read me! it cries. Stanzas stack up pig pile like skyscrapers then tumble down to dust.Deserts fill with dragons. Witches ride their little brooms like Halloween in July. Oceans wail. Tectonic plates shift. Planets line up like skid row inmates for lunc...

NEW WORLD ORDER“Even the devil disguises himself as an angel of light.”  2 Corinthians 11:14Maybe as children they weren’t afraid of the dark Somewhere in it, a fire always burned That never extinguished sight Around it the old Nazis gatheredMaybe they began in brightness then entered shadow The New World Order promised change And some girls liked to stroke their prickly heads They, too, enjoyed itMaybe they came to believe It’s not so bad to ask, “What would Hitler do?” To follow him for what he did And yet deny he did itMaybe after all the hippies, preppies, and goths Neo Nazi seemed like just the next turn in the road They formed a secr...

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?the answer is thirty-twowhere do geese go when they die there is no way to translate thatwhat moves backwards in a swamp how little flecks of gold glitter in the mineswhen will this alliance be forged with song and dance of tambourineswho are you dressed in red Thursdays I have this desire to change the worldhow many times will you ask me why did you have to ask me thatand in distant darkness shone the city lights--Previously published in Hedgerow and included in the collection “The Meaning of Life,” available at Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/A.-Cates/e/B006TGBCT2