THE ALTAR(ED) SLATE & SNAKEROOT WORKS
Ossuary Erotica
Volume II: Issue III
Stories by:
Heatherlie Allison and Patricia Cram
View Trailer HERE.
Printed on 100% recycled paper
Dimensions: 5.5" x 5.5"
48 pages
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. VISIONS OF X
When a prophet is crucified, three myrrhbearers conduct a rite in-tomb to ensure his ascension.
“We shall know the orchard by scent. Now. Remember our work with the black owl. We must become one in this final task, all of our strengths sanctified in unity… In this final miracle…”
II. XIVAI IXTIS, AMAT AMAT
A midwife couples with a vengeful river in order to purge a village of evildoers.
“She breaks apart their names. She practices. She turns the high-pitch of silver river to purest, deepest black. She is feverish, a gaping morass of bone striking bone. Peaceless vessels for centuries in her have wailed.”
III. TRICKS
Walking a corpse road, a woman of the night crosses paths with masked tricks along the way.
“The first trick’s mask is an orb of nearing light, glow into glow, all winding & word: The path’s an altar, the flesh a flame, it utters as it circles, entering & exiting at the crossroad dusk.”
IV. HELL MONEY
Traversing the land of the dead, a junkie-in-mourning tends to the needs of hungry ghosts as a means to reach her lover.
“I lean out the window until my hair touches the old bricks of uneven ground, the dirty puddles, the oily miasma of departed vendors, old urine awakened by night’s rain. Piss-ink calligraphy brush. I smile and close my eyes.”