To break from my recent trend, I am proud to announce that a short story of mine, “Heart of the Labyrinth,” has been accepted for publication in the upcoming anthology Gay City Volume Five: Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam. Follow the link for more information on the anthology and the Kickstarter fundraiser currently in progress, and if it is your will, please support the project.

Ode to the Lonely Heart

Sole occupant
of concavity:
stalactite core
weeping red sap.

Circular beats
crack the silence
with “not enough,
I’m not enough.”

Rivulets seek
reunion,
slicing a home
through hostility.

Granitic walls
bear witness to
the suffering
of no body.

Flinching eye, turn
to this abyss
and fold your arms
around despair.

Looking through old files of poetry drafts, I came upon this piece. I do not recall writing it, but the filename was “nonsense.pages.” I have decided it is an homage to Lewis Carroll.

The unctious frighteners do plume
about the myriad and splintered bloom.
From bifurcated orange drunken marrow
emerges the grey unheeded sparrow.
At hated, obsolescent failures bleak
the gruesome phantom dares not blink
lest rend you his undines by claw and dog
then post results to malicious blogs.
Unharrowed soil hearkens to the nail
the respite of gods bled to compost and fail
a garden she grew merely of weed and mint
her hair unbroken and mended in splint.
We should all so luckily skin divest
and heart so vibrantly under, blessed.
Antlered stags the moonlight drink and think
of homes unmade for turgid, irksome mink.
Here lies the secret of ancient black wrens
cavorting orgiastic beaks in glens:
“A victory from darkness must be wrought!”
The pointless battle once more to be fought.

Tolendaiser
The state of hesitation
when a gift from one’s parent
requires gratitude
but inspires a sense
of abandonment,
of not being seen;
a childhood wound.

Marchibarolan
The distance between
two lovers in bed
while attempting to sleep.

Xiltatation
A sense of urgency
after the realization
of a scheduling error,
when one must rush
from a styling appointment
to the funeral of a loved one.

Padronomonisg
A person who avows
materialist atheism
yet consults the horoscope
with surreptitious fervor.

Linagronaztic
Unfurling the bedsheets to discover
a long-lost sock, the mate of which
has been since cast into the garbage,
or made into a dust rag.

Hudriplomisml
The startling revelation
that one’s ancestors
were of an unexpected race,
and the onset of clarity
of long-held confusions.

Riquewrinaldol
A quality of revulsion,
with inexplicable spite.

Makwuentheka
An archaic magical practice,
in which the remains of old computers
are cast to divine the contents
of desiccated hard drives.

Sistelnakroth
A persistent, unwelcome spirit
who invites itself to parties,
weddings, births, and offers
inarticulate predictions of catastrophe
for persons unknown.

Warmuzlenaig
The name for a wild animal,
tamed to become a household pet,
who dreams of shredding
the throats of its owners.

Zoplexionaklip
The shock of recognizing
that one has sent
incriminating text messages
to the worst possible recipient.

Flizakorflam
A toxic play substance
given to children
who irritate their parents.

Aericothanko
A sexual position
wherein two or more lovers
contemplate orgasm
while separated by a body
of water, such as the ocean.

Cthaxorphilae
The love of, or affection for,
pseudoscientific claims
posited with inassailable authority
by those puporting to be
religious filmmakers.

Graduate school has taken up much of the energy I might spend writing or updating this blog, so entries are likely to be few and far between. However! I do want to update, as Scarlet Imprint has announced the opportunity to pre-order its upcoming anthology of poetry, Mandragora, which features some of my work! I am quite excited and honored to be a part of this project, and among so many other accomplished writers.