fiction

Dog of War

When Olokun, god of the oceans, threatened to discipline humanity with yet another deluge, Obatala the sky god intervened: it was decided that Olokun be restrained in the watery depths. For this, Ogun, god of war and technology was called upon. Ogun, like his Graeco-Roman analogues, Hephaestus / Vulcan is your talented blacksmith, technologist, and master of weapons. Like his Mediterranean ...

Yemayá at the Atlantic Terminal

Not to be outdone by her male counterpart, the First Lady of the Oceans also put in an appearance at the underwater terminal.

Armoured Girl Series (Part II)

“In assemblages you you find states of things, bodies, various combinations of bodies, hodgepodges; but you also find utterances, modes of expression, and whole regimes of signs.“ Gilles Deleuze The Armoured Girl series is an exercise in totemic human / animal capture and their resulting assemblages. Using Midjourney, the generative AI, I worked with Grace Jones and Benjamin ...

Wodaabe Gentlemen of the Heian Period

Juxtaposition (and generative AI) allows this to exist. An alchemy of Wodaabe beauty, birds of paradise, orchid mantises, and Japanese mezzotint.

Glitter

Poison The last vestiges of summer, Storm and I met for brunch and then proceeded to amble about the East Village rather aimlessly. It was pleasant and rainy. Light grey, light rain. We came across a Church on 1st Avenue. “Look!” said Storm “It’s Datura,” “It’s what?” He was pointing at a cluster of white bell-shaped flowers in the Church yard “Datura. It’s a hallucinogen. Shamanic” “Really?” ...

ISHTAROTH

A friend was having his birthday dinner at a tapas bar in Soho. I arrived horrifically late— they were at the coffee and dessert stage when I came in. It was my misfortune to be seated directly opposite Paul and Natasha. I had just passed a whole row of posters of Natasha on the street. Physically, her presence was even more disturbing. Thankfully Rob and Brit came round, I hadn’t seen either ...

The Birthday Party (excerpt from Language of the Chaldeans)

It is Margaret who answers the door. Her face falls immediately, I instantly recognize the extent of the sabotage— I am no longer fat—or chubby enough to enforce the hierarchy of the skinny.... But wait! All is not lost yet—I’m sure some alternative humiliation will be dispatched toute de suite to put me in my place… “These are lovely” the birthday girl scrutinizes the roses for defect.

Language of the Chaldeans (Prologue)

The memory itself taking on the strange contours of a dream— A bright shadowy November afternoon in Columbus Circle. Heading underground for the trains, I am arrested by the impulse to call—my mother? Out with the cell phone, click on address book, scan personal directory till the heading “Mom” creeps up… press “SEND”…

The NightWatch’s Plight

The Ogboni Society was formed centuries before the European explorers came in contact with Diamankor. Speculatively the institution was established in the mid 9th century. This was the era of the Aiwughobasinins, the Mountain Lords who ruled the island at the time. The Ogboni Society emerged from a system of checks and balances to safeguard against any one ruler gaining too much power. In ...

THE MEMOREXE

“The world as we see it is passing…” Ines 12:45 p.m., Tuesday Ines sits on her desk, lavishly sexy, trying to seduce me into writing this article. There is really no point to this— I’m grateful enough to have made it past the reception at Quasar, I need the work badly. Ines and I had been classmates through college, when the real world happened, she catapulted into magazine ...
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