Fiction

A Light Burned Brightly
Jefre Schmitz

"Go to him, won't you?" Cage's mother's dying wish is that he reconcile with his abusive father and Cage cannot bring himself to agree. A week after her passing, however, he steels himself to go confront the man that he has feared and hated since his childhood - a man who may not be entirely human.

The Blanket
Molly Martin

Mary Jo had no idea that the man who courted her and won her hand would turn into a monster on their wedding night. This powerful short story is about spousal abuse, and it is the most read story on the writer's website called the "AuthorsDen."

Promise in Sand
Lisa J. Binkley

This very humanistic short story was originally written as a challenge response at our associated writer's website. We hope to be able to publish more of these original compositions from our members in coming issues, and we think that you'll find this brief story charming and entertaining.

About the Cover Poetry

Poet and author Kevin Carr graciously provided the poem "Heroes Not" at our specific request. If you would like to read more of his work, a retrospective of his poetry is available in the May 2002 issue of Kudzu Monthly.

Health

New and Improved
Lisa J. Binkley

An informed patient is his own best advocate. That's the premise that the major drug companies use when they move advertising dollars away from medical journals to make their appeal directly to healthcare consumers. But, is this necessarily true? Lisa Binkley investigated this practice, as well as some of the newly formulated drug compounds, and what she discovered is surprising, enlightening and disturbing.

Non-fiction

Sixteen Hours on a Mexican Train
Peter S. Allen

"Uncle" Pete Allen, publisher and managing editor of that other literary ezine "The Swamp," sent us this travel article in the hopes that we might be interested. We were, so here's his plug. But... read the rest of Kudzu Monthly, and then read this article. (A link to his ezine is inside.)

Poetry

Lenore
Göttfried August Bürger

The man pictured above is best known for his eighteenth-century stories about the adventures of the flamboyant Baron Münchausen. He is also the author of this poem that describes how young bride-to-be Lenore waits for her soldier fiancee to come back from Hungary - and then discovers he's not quite how she remembered him.