you will find me under the color-fading #oak
food for roots and food for thought
a cautionary tale untold until uncovered
but perhaps it is best i remain remains
unspoken and forgotten except in whispers
wondering what my ghost wants (1/2)
#crowcalls
graham cracker meant to end
pleasures of the flesh
join with something hot
and dark melting over the sides
under the heated weight of
#scorched marshmallow eyes
please sir may i have s'more?
#crowcalls
what warns the #witch?
a light in the unlit lantern
a twitch of the familiar's tail
in silhouette to the cauldron fire
the broom falls from ensconced in the corner
the book parts to a cautionary spell
what warns the witch?
what warns the stranger?
#crowcalls
i may round and roll
and send off cursive vines
but i am not a pumpkin
in which you may #carve a smile
my thumbs will take your knife
and cut away the tendrils
to make way for garottes
and then i shall have two weapons
against your single squash
#crowcalls
shorn and #skinned
finally i need not
worry about bumps
and rough texture
and all the pitfalls
of pitted scars
at last i can breathe
#crowcalls
we don't ask so much of you
only that your knees bruise
and your back burns
only that you subjugate
and sublimate under others' needs
only that you orbit your identity
around others like the moon to a planet
we don't ask so much of you
only that you #bleed
#crowcalls
no doubt you think me vile
for asking this of you
a child of sin and calumny
i think this of me, too
despite the state of my wretched soul
hark to my impassioned plea
it will not stain your heart
to do this thing for me 1/2
#crowcalls
i keep a hex bag
of human hair and #teeth
deep in my guts
for safe-keeping
don't tempt me
#crowcalls
that's me
the #abomination
the worst of the worst
monstrous to the rotten core
a servant of the devil himself
when you look at me
any fool could see
that i am genuinely
the elegant child
of blasphemy
#crowcalls
put me on my knees
worship your name
and make me pray
it's all the same
take your nail
and crucify me
god damn me with
this delicious #blasphemy
#crowcalls
staggering the streets
no one comes out at night
maybe it's the screams
crackling like dead skin
from my deteriorated throat
they lock their doors
against the dead
walking #famished
in the dark
#crowcalls
claws like knives
#eviscerate the center
that cannot hold
spill the contents
and a muddy tea
upon throbbing floorboards
to drink through the cracks
#crowcalls
it was an easy error to make
this twenty-five pounds of meat
funky fragrant in the airplane cabin
i was just following instructions
and must have misread amid warnings
that the airport did not want dead 1/2
#crowcalls
the shadow right behind
the back of my sordid mind,
a #tenebrous reflection
of my moral dereliction.
shall we dance the waltz
on every last one of my faults?
or would you rather sip tea
with the two-face you see?
#crowcalls
I've forgotten how to #pray.
Asking for things never got me
anywhere and I talk to myself
and to mind's eye hallucinations
so often that talking to God
just seems like another character
conversation that might as well
have been a dream
or an email.
#crowcalls
a cicada killer may look
like one of satan's own
little hell #hound
and sound like an
electric drill
but it's actually
a pretty good friend
and won't sting unless
you really go out of your way
to piss it off by smashing it
which sounds like a you problem
#crowcalls
what vessel should contain my still-beating heart?
a jar of #glass so all can see me bleed,
or a mortar of stone so that none may know
that i have a heart or that it is anything but cold,
or a grocery bag wet and flimsy tied in a bow
to toss my heart in the trash among the sandwich ends?
#crowcalls
you have not even begun
to experience the #depths
to which I am willing to
sink. I would steal the
stars from the sky and
swallow the fire of these
millions of suns just
to regurgitate the lot
of it back onto you like
raging lava from my mouth.
#crowcalls
the wires upon which
the blackbirds perched
drip rubber wax upon
parched concrete
tires melt into puddles
metal smokes where something
is left sizzling on car doors
the conflagration burns
out of all control
a global #pyre of dunces
#crowcalls
is dusk or dawn more full of #sorrow
the loss of light or night
the calm and quiet before or the
bustle and busyness of life
perpetually dissatisfied with
the state of things and wish
for someplace in between or neither
#crowcalls
the #ritual of the clock
of the tick tock commanding me
when to move when to rest
when to eat when to run
when to work when to swallow
check the numbers check yourself
measuring the days by the
ding dong ringing on the hours
#crowcalls
snap the #bone to see how it breaks.
the splinters will tell you the future
of a murderer. take the marrow dust
and stew it in your tea. drink down
the entire brew to the last drop
to see your victim's fate in tandem
with yours. bury the bone as well as (1/2)
#crowcalls
bone scored and
#sinew snapped
muscle a ragged ruin
caves and crevices
made of feast flesh
on a forest floor
left a claw behind
and fur in the cracks
and tracks of long paw
rat ventures into
savaged tunnel and
makes a brief warm home
where it can eat the walls
#crowcalls
the rabbit and #hare are so alien to each other
that they are less capable than lion to tiger
or horse to zebra. the uncanny valley separates
their bloodlines like one crab line to another,
confused cousin from another world, uncrossed,
distorted reflections of fear and familiar
#crowcalls
a platter for a delicate palate
spread on a bed of satin
and exquisitely dressed
notes of soil and decomposition
juicy tender falling off the bone
a moldering #feast for the subterranean
#crowcalls
a rough #hewn face in the shadows
of the bark at sunset grins
but as the light dims
broadens to a shriek
only to sleep
in peace after
the dusk falls to darkness
#crowcalls
I'm back at it again, with April's Crow Calls in November.
our acolytes do their best
to enchant and entice,
for to conjure via virtue
or through delicious vice—
either qualities, righteous
or evil, will ultimately suffice. (1/2)
@quillandcrow.com
#crowcalls
you owned the day, sir,
commanded a commanding crowd,
broadcasted your ignorance
and you broadcasted it loud.
you will never earn respect
an object of abject scorn.
contempt leaves you cowed,
given the hook in the valley of death.
you must be so #proud.
@quillandcrow.com #crowcalls
what do i have to do to get some
eyes in my direction? must i
enucleate the lot, keep them in a
glass jar i can turn at will?
or would you rather go blind staring
into the sun, cages for your eyelids
so that you cannot blink, only burn?
do i have your #attention now?
@quillandcrow.com #crowcalls
pin me in a pinafore
stick me with lipstick
stab me with needles through my hair
tie on the mask of mascara
while I hide the shadows under my eyes
demand i #perform for you
your obedient little mechanical
music boy ballerina
but when the music ends
this box will close
@quillandcrow.com #crowcalls
