The wildebeest— with formidable horns curved and hooked to gore, musculature evident in Serengeti sun, hooves heavy as iron, agile as a gazelle’s —prepare to cross the Mara River. Nile crocodiles lie in wait, their backs rippled like quiet water. Black eyes, like hungry bugs hatching from shadows of waves, survey the herd at water’s [...]
The Human Thing ~ WOLE TALABI
<Load Text File Evidence/OSAS/Encrypted_H-Mail_to_active_ENIX_members> Transmitter: [UNKNOWN – SOURCE TRACE FAILURE] Reception Date: Hour 16.45, Day 243, Year 2505. Subject: “Prepare Yourselves” Receivers: [UNKNOWN – SOURCE TRACE FAILURE] When the hunger and the bombs came, we forgot our heritage of independence and reasoning. We descended into an abyss of sheep-like senselessness. We gave them our obedience, [...]
Charaid Dreams ~ Rati Mehrotra
It’s not the cold what kills you. Not the naarg-wolves neither, Maw says, though they’re plenty scary. No, it’s the Dreams what’ll get you in the end. Dreams what wake in winter and sleep in summer. If only summer weren’t so short. Like the song of a chitkil it is, a burst of glory that [...]
The Lord of Darkness ~ Christian Riley
The Lord of Darkness assembles himself from the shadows, takes form in a corner of the room, and then scampers to the edge of the bed. He pauses, looking. Others had done it, and so would he. He is Nunsk, a nightmare of the mortal realm, soon to deliver a horror of the night so [...]
Respect ~ Meg Eden
Meg Eden's work has been published in various magazines, including Rattle, Drunken Boat, Poet Lore, and Gargoyle. She teaches at the University of Maryland. She has four poetry chapbooks, and her novel "Post-High School Reality Quest" is forthcoming from California Coldblood, an imprint of Rare Bird Lit. Check out her work here
Frozen Food ~ Francis DiClemente
Our Grandma Uzoma forbade us from going into her kitchen after midnight. She claimed the freezer was possessed. She said one time a bag of frozen mixed vegetables pushed a carton of vanilla ice cream out of the freezer and onto the floor—where the ice cream turned to liquid by morning. She said the two [...]
Sub-Saharan Magazine 