GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ They Say the Sirens Left the Seas a book of poetry by James Hutchings + excerpt | I Smell Sheep

Saturday, June 21, 2014

They Say the Sirens Left the Seas a book of poetry by James Hutchings + excerpt

A while back we reviewed a collection of poems and stories, The New Death and Others by James Hutchings (review). He has recently released another collection called They Say the Sirens Left the Seas. James was kind enough to share something from the collection. Take a read and check out both books. They are only $.99.
  
The Cat and the Toad

At the dawn of the world on a tree-sheltered road
an agreeable cat met a horrible toad.
When the cat saw its neighbor it fearfully shook

for in those days all creatures would act as they looked
and the toad was all warty, and bulging, and slimy.
The trembling cat mewed a terrified "Blimey!"
(more vigorous oaths had not yet been discovered)
and looked at the evil made plain on the other
one hideous sin for each hideous feature.
"Oh please do not kill me, most wicked of creatures!"
it begged without hope. But the toad thought awhile
then it gave what might almost have been called a smile
and it said, "You may keep what you carry within
but if you are to live, you must give me your skin."
Now the cat had no choice, though it bitterly cried
but to take off its fur and to put on the hide
of the venomous toad, and no creatures had made
such a villainous threat, such a terrible trade.
Then the cat hopped away where it once would have strode
for the toad was a cat, and the cat was a toad.

This explains why the toad, though so utterly charmless
is gentle in nature and totally harmless
while cats appear graceful and splendid and good
but would murder us all in our beds if they could.

(Disclaimer: This only refers to other cats. Your cat is lovely of course)



They Say the Sirens Left the Seas
By James Hutchings

The last dragon faces his death...

A magician bases his life on a misheard word...

A teenager goes looking for his friends' girlfriends, none of whom have ever been seen...

46 poems by James Hutchings.




About the Author:
website
James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might
know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and
Wisdom Crieth Without among other markets. His ebook collection 'The New Death and others' is now available from
Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and DriveThruFiction.

both books are only $.99
can buy on Smashwords

1 comment:

  1. Always thought there was something sneaky going on with those cats roaming the neighborhood ;) Thank you for sharing with us.

    ReplyDelete