calliope whine
the clown’s greasepaint
smeared with blood
(more…)

This is Somalia, land of tradition

A cock crows
beginning the fast
from dawn to dusk
sins burned away
the living pray. (more…)

They say Winter doesn’t forgive

Gospel, true as the grave is cold

But it does forget

Eyes snow blind with hope, believing

The lies told with frozen breath

A blizzard of desperation (more…)

She knows the taste of nails,
a clutch of them in her mouth
like a dressmaker’s pins.
The flavor of iron is comforting,
something she can wield. (more…)

We first played this game as children
some three thousand miles south of here,
clattering out of screen porches
and down back steps onto cushioning grass.
Here my thick boots snap the snow like bone.
Freeze, somebody would yell, and we’d halt,
our traitorous hearts still pounding their drums.
There is no pulse on the tundra but mine.

(more…)

The cuckoo clock
has turned quite sinister
in the darkened parlour of
your ancestors, (more…)

Daylight was the first to flicker.
The air was subsequently thinned;
we gasped–each breath more
labored than the one before it. (more…)

Zombies
He paints them with his gun
colors of red and bone
like bursting balloons
the “Bang” is the same (more…)

Come forth
thundered heaven
the summons heard
they did

what better way
to plague man
than with man
neither locust nor flies
nor darkness would
suffice this go round (more…)

No bites in the morningsave for bugs

drowning in ocular fluid

rubbing and rubbing

out plopped his eye (more…)

Virulent progression,
Procession to rot;
Hungry and undead
Killing what’s not (more…)