The Last Marco Polo

by Richard Montana

My host ushers me, the exotic Italian, into his yurt. We get horsemilk drunk. Photoshopped mares hang from canvas walls, throatsinging isn’t his ringtone. In time, our conversation wilts like polluted grassland. He hands me a dagger, a traveler’s remembrance. Engraved on the blade, Mongolian prayers, and on the hilt, “Made in China.”

6S

Richard Montana, whose website is here, is a science fiction author in Asheville, North Carolina.