The Pretty Dead Ones

He plucks the pretty ones So fresh upon the bloom, Yet wonders why they wane In darkness and in gloom Apart from root and love. Coveted to gild his room, Alone and withered until — Shriveled, he beheads to groom; The longest-lasting buds Wait in anguish for deplume, Forced to fade for forceful will To smell a…

A Sacred Feral

I never felt holier than when I defied holy men — when I spurned subservient prods by society’s pricks to become bare-teethed, brazen and bold, barking mad,  Wild Again. My naked feet have been muddied in my own blood mixed with seed-laden dirt by roots of living trees, having spilled all weevil-infested progeny. Together we stretch our leaf hands to the…

His Angel’s Voice

Vibrations of volcano glossolalia vibrato spark, fly, pour, run red rivulets, drip burning droplets into my canal. A tune of flames I feebly touch. Hot summer air from forgotten swamps carries bullfrog solace o'er meadows to my humble carbon home. A laugh — human? A laugh, not mocking but sweet, cooling the heat to soft…

My Endymion

I am a blue moon, harvest moon, blushing red over this autumn night before turning my full round face toward that sleeping shepherd, tanned from Helios even beneath me (ministrations I can never give despite my current fire). Kissing Endymion, I almost know what it is to be that sweet, sweltering sun I never see…

Shivering in Spirals

will you come leave me crumbling, shivering in spiraling quadrants, split in half and back again, whole while shattered in a thousand stars splintering the dark sky of the void my spirit ever drowns, oblivion beneath the surface… yet I float upon the shimmering tension like a water strider gliding past sparking carbon, diamond fires…

Red Crone and the Wolf

You have such large, sharp, soiled teeth! All the better to eat me with. Keep them unsheathed, bare me underneath if you would be so merciful.   I want to let you in, let you  rip out my desiccated tongue, scratch my throat and hew your way past my heart.   Devour these traitorous cells in…

Maiden AL13

Cold aluminum filigrees, like lace, bend and twist in pretty patterns across my arms, looking for all the world like lady armor made for the modern age. Yet it pinches, wears down marks, leaves scratches red as the stains in Liz Bathory's linen-lined tub as I lay here, for now unbroken — forever, save I…

A Ghostly Gale

My moon soul whispers of tell-tale dread among the dead… silent screams unseen in the empty gray sunrise. A bone howl. Dusk spirits scatter through the broken storm. Bitter is the lightning. Dreadful their thunder. A passing crow cloud is cawing for earth death by crypt and cellar: I shudder between them within a dream.…

COVID CORVID

Coronaviral conspiracy some say, snubbing Overt deaths and the tear-dampened masks Reigning on thrones in one-room lives. Other Vicious veils of plague mask cosplay make light In the face of fear, collecting as unkindness Driven from murders to belong to longer laughter. Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Pexels.com Preview from my upcoming 2023 collection The…