Sleeping Beauty

Christopher Friend

Hidden in a cave

dark as the socket of a

mummy's eye

Lies the red rose of

purity waiting to be

awakened from a

slumber

Still as death

and yet with skin as

white as the moon.

Chris Friend, mars_art_13@yahoo.com, of Parkersberg, W.Va , writes and illustrates our “MARS News” column. He did a cover for Black Petals back in 2000 for the fall issue, and has been around ever since. BP prints his column in the issue quarterly. Chris has a gallery at

http://chris.michaelherring.net/ and was featured artist in Kurt Newton’s Ultimate PerVersities (Naked Snake) [Jan. 2011].