by Mary E. Lowd
The fog is swirling
The squirrel’s tail curling
As the lantern lights
Each careful step Continue reading “Wandering with a Lantern”
An e-zine about spaceships, aliens, science, memory, motherhood, magic, and cats.
by Mary E. Lowd
The fog is swirling
The squirrel’s tail curling
As the lantern lights
Each careful step Continue reading “Wandering with a Lantern”
by Mary E. Lowd
Round and round, the otter goes
It’s only a toy spaceship
The otter knows
But a trip to the stars Continue reading “Biding Time on a Carousel”
by Mary E. Lowd
The waves keep crashing into me
Sometimes they knock me down
But I can stand back up
When I have to, I can swim
Or find safe haven Continue reading “Never Drown”
by Mary E. Lowd
She is the coherence
At the heart
Of the fractured light
In every kaleidoscope Continue reading “The Kaleidoscopic Unicorn”
by Mary E. Lowd
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That stumbled down
From skies above to crowds below
Of jumbled blooms Continue reading “The Kaleidoscopic Daffodil”
by Mary E. Lowd
The planets turn
Stately and bright
Like stars in the sky
Lighting up the night Continue reading “The Kaleidoscopic Sky”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1 or return to the previous chapter.
The last two days on Crossroads Station passed in a tired blur of playgrounds, take-out food cart meals, and playing with cousins. Basically, repetition and revisiting of all the kids’ favorite parts of the trip, because the parents had worn themselves out and didn’t have energy for any more big events.
While everyone in Anno’s little family had loved the trip, it had also been exhausting — even for the children who usually had boundless energy — and by the final morning, they were all ready to be on their way home. Continue reading “You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station — Chapter 22”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead to the next chapter.
As they danced together, Anno and Drathur finally had the moment of semi-privacy they needed to discuss the morning’s altercation and its fallout. The conversation went more easily than Anno expected, as Drathur had already arrived at the same conclusion. She didn’t even have to say it; he said it for her: “Of course we should invite Kya to come back to New Heffe with us. I don’t know if she’ll want to come — the population is ninety percent Heffen, but she makes all of us happy. She fits right into our family, and we’d be lucky to have her.” Continue reading “You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station — Chapter 21”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead to the next chapter.
After all the pictures were taken, including every person milling around under the draping branches of the karillow trees in some combination or other, Am-lei’s grandmother held her arms up high and announced, “Everyone follow me! It’s time for the ceremony.” A broad grin spread across her wrinkled, human face, and she walked backward, carefully leading the group to a karillow tree with small twinkling, colored lights braided into its draping branches. It looked like a million fairies lived among those green leaves. Continue reading “You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station — Chapter 20”
by Mary E. Lowd
An excerpt from You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station. If you’d prefer, you can start with Chapter 1, return to the previous chapter, or skip ahead to the next chapter.
Anno had traveled across star systems, spending weeks away from her chosen homeworld, to make it to Am-lei and Jeko’s wedding. The whole trip, fundamentally, was about going to a wedding. And now that the morning of the wedding had come, her family was running late. There was nothing to be done about it. The kits were always a whirlwind of chaos and disasters whenever she and Drathur needed them to be ready for something at a specific time. There was nothing like a deadline to cause one of the kits to lose track of their favorite toy or put their clothes on backwards or get gum stuck in their fur, even though Anno couldn’t remember ever giving her kits gum. Continue reading “You’re Cordially Invited to Crossroads Station — Chapter 19”