W. Gregory Stewart is a short story writer and poet whose work has appeared Amazing Stories, Asimov's, Dreams & Nightmares, several Rhysling Anthologies, and dozens of other publications. Dark Planet is designed and edited by Lucy A. Snyder. If you spot any errors, or if you have any comments, please contact her at lusnyde@indiana.edu. All materials copyright 1996-1997 by their respective creators. No stories, articles, poems or images from this webzine may be posted or published without the written consent of their creators.

Prenova Nights, Young and in Love by W. Gregory Stewart night runs out the ripstorm to a dark world, marking the torn corners and dog-eared pages of a day's rage carelessly, looking for the last horizon but finding the backside of a broken sun under the bushes or on the banks the ivory hollows of lost skulls gape in celebration of brainlessness, blind and mindless of time dunes crawl tunelessly across tundra, penumbral and numb before forgotten mountains shouldered on mantles slaved of a slow tide and grabbing at the brass ring -- or a loose star rain resurrects the echoes of thunder and mud, as crickets steal a last kiss and take cover; we hold hands, trying to remember rainbows but finding the backside of the broken sun