Joy Reid is 34 years old, married, and lives on a hundred and thirty five acre property which borders a state forest in South Gippsland, Australia. She teaches, dreams, reads novels, writes poetry and loves red wine and smelly cheeses. Her work has been published in AntiMedia, Solas, Sparks, Poetry Future Express, Snakeskin, The Empty Shelf, Dream Forge, Ygdrasil, Neologue, Pauper, Eternity and others. 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@cyberus.ca. All materials copyright 1996-1998 by their respective creators. No stories, articles, poems or images from this webzine may be posted or published without the written consent of their creator(s).

Roo Shoot by Joy Reid Between pine rows straight as rifle barrels a yellow dog slinks low moon     slow strobing. Chink, chink a metallic summons chink, chink... Backpack gleams a buoy a bob among a wash of stars. White javelins spotlight the pasture. Sons of bitches loosed onto darkness they nose among thistles tall as sentries worry blackberry tangles and finally find grey shapes like conch shells does crouched feeding stretched shapes like gum leaves old bucks guarding. The largest sways, his testicles tighten. A boom. The night recoils. Cordite swirls -- a conjurer's trick. Yanked, a roo leaps back -- the rest slide left, slip moorings. The scene blinks out and we chink, chink       chink, chink    forward towards dark threshing.