the Great Thunder
& his sons
live in the west
above the sky vault

lightning & rainbow handsome suits

priests pray to Thunder
& visit the people to deliver rain
& provide blessings from the south

Thunder lived close to the Earth’s surface
in the cliffs & mountains

& under waterfalls
& felt free to harm the people at times

the other thunders
plotting mischief

/

Ashley Parker Owens lives in the hills of Kentucky, where the gnomes are. She has lived in San Francisco in an ashram, and in Chicago where she helped with the Second Underground Press Conference and was the creator and editor of Global Mail. After the successful publication of Gnome Harvest by Double Dragon Publishing, Ashley is writing the next novels in the Gnome Stories Series. She has an MFA in Creative Writing at Eastern Kentucky University, and an MFA from Rutgers University in Visual Arts. Ashley is the owner of the indie press KY Story, proud publisher of thirteen anthologies celebrating the Kentucky, Appalachian, and Southern voice. Her work has recently appeared in Hogglepot, Rose Red, Egg Poetry, Boston Poetry Magazine, Message in a Bottle, Silver Birch, Quail Bell, Imaginarium, Tinderbox Magazine, The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society, On the Grid, Lorelei Signal and Mystic Signals. Reach her at parker.owens@gmail.com or kystory.net.