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@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).

home again by W. Gregory Stewart body parts arms and legs and livers and lips stacked in the freezer beside Tuesday's casserole and a tub of green tea ice cream on the street outside an animal control officer nets a Witness and locks it up in the same cage as the Jones kid the barefoot season is down at the corner but nobody wants to wait for the starting gun as happy toes grab the sidewalk once again gravity waves snow quietly through channels that nobody watches and wind is narrowcast along the local cable franchise stones are stacked in large irregular piles about small animals and onions leaves cover the stone and logs cover the leaves when the fires are set tiny screams are just audible above the crackling laughter below gray skies there is a stop sign at the city limit and a dry well outside the courthouse and the real world stops on the other side of each of these when the fires die the stones are moved away and the small animals whisked away to kitchens and commissaries sometimes the animals aren't animals and tongues are clucked in red-faced regret and the thing that is not an animal is cut up into more convenient pieces and stacked in freezers beside casseroles and ice cream just in case welcome back and welcome home rest a moment then go and find your first stone