5Absolution Listen-if you stand on the edge of the abyss and look down the skulls grin back out of the blackblack depths of oblivion as if to say here we are look where it's oh-so-much-better but here on earth watching we too have nirvana (thirty-seven fifty per mont

10Benevolent Design Did Gaia turn to Venus one morning, and ask: "Does the crust make me look fat? I'm feeling a little round these days, I must confess."

6Reflection . . . and I might have answered but it's hard to remember because I was wondering whether swearing in literature could be considered a form of ART (after all, ContemporaryArt is undefined) . . .

7The Writer's Attic, Issue 13 In this issue: I takes on he, she and it (and maybe even you) . . . points of view, plus a very brief word on democracy.

6Cycle some mornings she wakes up trying to recall the night's epiphany, the climactic sense of alliswell and humanityiwillsaveyou although the means to do so sadly are lacking

10The Writer's Attic, Issue 11 Here's issue 11 of the Writer's Attic until the column upload gets fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

17Wings » Anything with wings is different

6Sunrise They decided simply a long time ago that caffeine was for lovers and others who considered the day worth staying awake for . . .

13Tristesse A creative nonfiction piece I wrote a few months ago. Deals with some of my experiences during one of the less pleasant times in my life, more as brief glimpses and memories than narrative. Constructed around a piece I was playing on the piano.

21Night Walker » Rowena is Storms blood . . . hunter and healer combined, a lonely destiny. But when a strange vampire suddenly discovers her name . . . and her home, everything she holds for unchanging seems suddenly to warp and merge. Life's constant is change, and sh