CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This week’s verse moves from a fantasy poem about a ghostly queen, to an apocalyptic science fiction verse about people surviving a planet-shattering invasion. It is taken from Another 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2019. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------   The Escape Clause Time thunders, the mountains shake free Birds lift in panic and away from the quake the animals run, for their lives are at stake. The ground breaks beneath the eternal shaking Landslides and rock slides break free of the slopes freeing the ships buried for so long, freeing our hopes For the planet is breaking apart as we stand here, ruined by war brought to us from the stars where our enemies hunted our forebears for so long we prepared an escape should they find us alone and find us they have with our allies absent and our world, it is failing w...

The Runaway is the second short story to be found in An Anthology of Bloodlines . It is also available as a stand-alone short story. With fire and otherworldly invaders closing in, a commander takes the time to tell the story of his capture and the reasons behind his return to continue the fight. What are the secrets of his past? The Runaway is currently available as a stand-alone title at Smashwords , Kobo , Kindle , iTunes , and Nook, but will one day be incorporated into An Anthology of Bloodlines . First Pa ges: The Runaway In the gathering dark of the downs, campfires twinkled in a shallow valley. The commander of the troops gathered about those fires lay, belly-flat, on the top of one of the hills bordering the valley. He looked, but nothing disturbed the smooth slope of the downs below him. After staring across the broad valley his troops had to cross the next day, he turned to the sentry beside him. “Keep a watch,” he said. “I can smell smoke.” ...

The Runaway is the first short story to be included in An Anthology of Bloodlines . It is also available as a stand-alone short story. With fire and otherworldly invaders closing in, a commander takes the time to tell the story of his capture and return to continue the fight. What are the secrets of his past? The Runaway is currently available as a stand-alone title at Smashwords , Kobo , Kindle , iTunes , and Nook, but will one day be incorporated into the anthology, An Anthology of Bloodlines .