Thick cold shadows stretch
as rotting walls attenuate the
terrifying echoes of a scream.
The children snuggled and
tucked themselves into bed
as Nanny Agatha crept into
the dark room.
She wore a sharp, wicked grin
as she pulled a wooden bowl
from her apron.
Inside sat bruised, oozing
apples, completely covered
in fuzzy green mold and decay.
"Time for your bedtime treat,"
she hissed, her voice sounding
like dry, scraping autumn leaves.
She held a sour, rotten slice toward
little Tommy as she began her eerie
tale.
Her story was about a wicked witch
who trapped children inside deep,
black wells.
The brothers stared at the bitter, slimy
fruit, their hearts racing with glowing
dread.
"Watch every bite," Nanny whispered,
her shadow stretching long across their
shaking shoulders.
The bedroom windows rattled violently
as the foul stench of the fruit filled the
air.
She blew out the candle, leaving
them trapped in the dark with her
endless, unsettling story.
Twin seams cross the skin,
Threaded paths where
smiles once lived,
Mending what was torn.
No one knew why or how
but Mount Claudia was haunted
not by ancestral ghosts
but by something dark and sinister
did people die there?
If so, they were probably murdered
maybe pushed off and left to die of broken necks
it had that kind of feel
whatever happened
happened before written history
there is no record of it
but empaths tremble with clicking teeth upon approach
my muse Trixie turns herself inside out and upside down
wanting my full attention, but I am not always in the mood to write
This infuriates her. She becomes determined to make me pay
She can be terrifying, so I try to accommodate.
Trixie demands attention and commands respect
she is nothing like me, and yet she is me
Difficult to explain
unless you wake up like I do, hearing the last line of a poem
I ignored my muse for forty years; a self-imposed sabbatical
she was not happy
but kept quiet, reposing in the background
collecting her ideas
for the past six years we have the goal of ten poems a day
and we have met this goal, so she is relatively happy
insistent and persistent when I am ready to say uncle
she is my resilient powerhouse
my muse Trixie turns herself inside out and upside down
wanting my full attention, but I am not always in the mood to write
This infuriates her. She becomes determined to make me pay
She can be terrifying, so I try to accommodate.
I woke up frightened, a girl lost in an abyss of terrifying dreams,
Where sweat flows like a rain of stars on the sky of the endless night,
I worry, for I used to not know fear when you were by my side,
But now I feel the shadows of the world reaching silently for my soul,
I wonder what you feel when my name echoes like a memory,
If I still have a small place in your heart, to cross your thoughts,
A joy that blooms like a rose or a relief that melts away,
Are you sad, like an autumn sky, or perhaps in tears like summer rain?
How do you feel if these are my last breaths, fragile as butterfly wings,
How do you feel if the feet that ran to you can no longer rise?
How do you feel, when in the silence of the night, only the wind tells our stories,
When my dreams dissipate at dawn, like the smoke of a forgotten candle?
In the depths of my soul, I search for answers in the labyrinth of shadows,
I try to find solace in the thought that maybe you still look back,
Through the veil of time and silence, in search of a thread of light,
For my heart still beats in a rhythm that secretly bears your name.
blood falls and bleeding
among the white snow and ice
terrifying sight
I was so terrified ty today’s cat news
It gave me chills, kept me in the blues
I guess they print each horrible scoop
Hoping it will scare out our morning poop
It works for me, I have to admit
I left quite a bit in the litter box, said my cat Whit.
Tomorrow had better not be so full of horrible stuff.
For I might have to cancel it like my cousin ****.
Winged gargoyle appeared in my sleep with glaring teeth.
I felt intimidated, there seemed to be sinister ways beneath.
Why would the sleep faerie put such a gargoyle in my dream?
I ran from this monster, my terrified heart pumping full steam!
It's not that simple for hacking bank account
It needs advance information technology
Genius is breaching privacy, security and law
A misuse of knowledge and wisdom
Just because of greediness
A careless step will fall into his trap
Money can fly away without wings
Hardwork won't pay
Why is the world so terrifying
Why does the world whirl round without logics
Very unfair to an honest, abiding and devoting man
A life's saving has gone like the wind
We're facing a frightening magical world
With tough confrontation but defencelessness
Oh, my god
Blessing my friends
An app on my phone says they’ll be snow tonight - we can expect .2 inches in New Haven. I can’t wait because where I come from snow is an event.
In Georgia, the mere suggestion of a snowflake in a weather report results in businesses closing, the freeway being blocked-off, and the entire city being evacuated.
Some poor, non-essential civil-servant is sent to his (or her) probable death in the cold, in order to try and startup the state’s single, neglected snowplow.
Reports of “snow” can provoke vicious, panic shopping for essentials, like Totino's Triple-Meat-Pizza-Rolls - known for keeping teenagers alive in weather-pocalypses.
As the snowflake is tracked-in by radar, wooden furniture is chopped up for strategic placement by the fireplace and beloved family pets are evaluated for their fur and nutritional values. Has Grandma really been pulling her weight lately?
These New Englanders seem completely nonplussed by snow, like republicans facing unnecessary death or the loss of American democracy. I think I’m going to video this.
Interesting fact: Snow actually falls from the sky. I know, it’s terrifying.
Don’t look in the mirror I cautioned myself
As if a basilisk was going to paralyze me at any second
I have read of them, and they eat mammals.
I wondered if this one would have to cut me up first
I am pretty big to gulp in a few bites.
Or will his teeth chop me up in a satisfactorily way?
Give me that mandrake root, I told my nine year old cousin. Just in case.
He was terrified. He had just finished reading two Harry Potters.
I loved it that I could use his fear to keep him silent and compliant.
I am evil that way.
One empty black night,
Two yowls shrieked through the night air;
Three minute cat fight.
One shudders at the dying plea of beasts;
Two injured cats is bad; glad it’s not three!
Written 2-25-19
It’s coming, that time of the year,
to do up my taxes, I fear.
I shake with great fright
and toil through the night.
What’s owed is becoming too clear.
I regret the money I’ve spent
on food and the lights and the rent.
My cat needs a job;
a bank I may rob.
‘Twill do me no good to dissent.
Female - garnet
Snip-snaw lambasted me today.
Misunderstood initially,
Practically undiscovered
Until I remembered the stories of
Some others.
Zeke and Sam’s horrible, vivid scary
Stories of unkind deeds the snip-snaw had
Caused them to do, against their
Best judgement, immobilized me
To my bed for an extra hour,
Weighted blanket over my head.
Terrified burgundy hair stood up notoriously tall.
Goosebumps on my scalp,
I felt uncomfortably threatened, as I
Shook louder than a twenty-eight year old
Unbalanced washer on spin.
Yes, snip-snaw happened to me today,
I will speak of it no more,
But it was even more terrible and
Horrifyingly scary as I had ever
Had the audacity to believe.
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