Del Sol SFF Review—Spring 2022

Vaileen had been staring at her souls for hours. She was lying with her back to the wall, letting the silence crush her. It felt like she was slipping into the fabric of the world. So, she stared at her souls in their little yellow shells, their faint glow thrumming inside like a heartbeat. Vaileen put her hand to her chest and massaged the prickled skin. Indeed, there was a flutter underneath her flesh and bone, but it felt disconnected. It had been ever since her love was lost. She looked around her house, tucked in the cavity of a coral reef. There was a table that had once been set for two. Shriveled-up anemones lay in a glass vase in the center. Her love insisted on putting sea flowers all over so the house felt alive. Now the only life sat inside six shells. Vaileen opened her mouth to sing to her souls, but her throat felt dry. The last time she had spoken was three weeks ago when a diver plunged off a boat and began stabbing the fish in the reef above. Vaileen had felt the vibr...

Wildflowers—Steve Nutt

When the police come round, askin, they looks me up sideways. Two men, barely out of kidskin. Says have you seen the boys an girls out by the humps? Goin out there night-time? I says I hear em, tells em that old oak and the lanky birches got no beef with children, keeps an eye out for them even. With their root talk ‘n spores. Wherever them kids has gone, they gone safe. There is rules, see? Most people know that cats can’t abide no cucumbers. Common sense, that. But did you know the war between house spider an the house? That shale brick an clay, walling you all in, some two hundred years. The house spider scarries the floors, claims skirting board an plaster is his, all of em barriers between the hearth an home, the web, an that old enemy. Meanwhiles there’s that dancin cellar spider, in the damp corners an underneath toilets, in that space behind doors what don’t close no more. He works for shale rock since before it was ever dug out the ground. Old Papa Shale and daddy-long-l...

Ashes—Jon Adcock

The world is my expense The cost of my desire Jesus blessed me with its future And I protect it with fire Rage Against the Machine – Sleep Now in the Fire Night had crept up and brought a bitter cold that clawed and bit at any exposed flesh. As if they were panes of glass, the frozen puddles shattered with each step, and the condensation of every breath danced and swirled like ghosts before being swept away. The car-clotted highway receded further and further behind us as we made our way through these desolate fields. All around us were rusted farm equipment and the dry, stunted remnants of failed crops. I glanced back at the distant city. The tale-tell mushroom cloud had dissipated hours ago, but a luminescence brushed the undersides of the tattering clouds with faint light. The city still burned. I could see snowflakes drifting down around us in the faint moonlight. My mouth was dry, and my lips chapped; I held out one gloved hand and let the snowflakes slowly fill my cupped pa...

Del Sol SFF Review

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