Narrated by Joe Nicholas
Illustration by Sue Babcock
A rose petal falls from the top of the mountain, landing softly on the ocean's skin. The waves tremble as they stain red and green like a torrent of bleeding leaves. For days the gloom bubbles, sizzling and steaming, seething plumes of scarlet 'gainst the sky. At the top of the mountain the garden is choked, petals wilted and weeping. From the sores of the world the lioness emerges in pieces. Her limbs are all gold and tender as light, still dripping with burning blood. When her throat finds her skull she starts roaring. When she is whole she is still not whole. When she is whole she is thirsty. She drinks in the ocean. She swallows the smoke. There is silence at the top of the mountain. A rose peeks through the ash, and bursts into blossom. The lioness buries herself in the sea, in the rock, in the forest and fields, in the sky, in breath and silence, in death to make new, in all stars ripping open to empty.
AUTHOR BIO: Joe Nicholas is an experimenter, experiencer, editor of The Screaming Sheep, and member of the Germland collective. His work can be found in BOAAT, Chiron Review, Driftwood Press, Profane, Weave Magazine, Willard & Maple, and other wonderful magazines. He received his degree in Applied Psychology from Champlain College. He can be found at 8rainCh1ld.tk.