Writing > Published Works

They Howl, Ignore Them


In my thirtieth year, death kept watch. I scrubbed the kitchen floor
till the man on the porch blended with the dark. The window grew teeth
so I pulled down the blinds, muffled the talk. I coordinated my closet.
Snakes looped and fell off the hangers. Bats swooped in the hall.
There were sharks in the bathwater, wolves under the bed. With the covers
pulled high over my head I felt long arms slide round from behind,
frost fingers, icy breath along my neck. Eat rat poison, he said into my dream,
lie down for the train, and the tracks unrolled. He trudged through the mud,
towed me along the ground by my hair.



*Published in Dark Sky Magazine: online December 2009