Fragile

What fragile creatures are we,

To touch the face of immortality

Is but a dream.

In supple costumes we dance

To the tune of our own romance.

We walk with giants in our boots;

Walking with stilted legs that stretch

Wide the ego we hate to lose.

With a murderous heart and mind

We trade our souls to wash out

The bitter taste of time

Until we can’t taste anymore.

What fragile creatures are we,

To touch the face of immortality

Is but a dream.

What shield do we have but pride

To keep the world outside?

Cradling the broken shell

We fight the ever-biting tide;

Hoping to preserve ourselves.

And so the hourglass grows thin;

Our bones dragging skin.

Sowing the lines of our vanity,

Hoping to taste a little bit more.

Crippled (Eye)

your crippled (eye) only sees

what it can…not

like a vampire that slips by

the looking glass undisturbed

(invisible)

you are no more than a

whisp-er for you

have forgotten

your own voice

A slave to your mouse-

trapped mind

a fool charmed and slighted

by his own dirty tricks

though you slip through the puddles

of your mind

there need not be such suff’ring

beneath the muck-wreathed face

stirs a fire amidst the clay

let me be the one to

open up

the pale petals

of your fragile heart

sun-kissed your

dew-dropped lips

taste its warmth

you are an ivory ocean

flow

ing

down

two mighty rivers

down

supple slopes tender-

ly spilling into lush valleys

fertile green

and I meet you

on that great horizon

where dawn breaks

the furtive sky

Upon the Throne of Piety

For centuries I have seen the power of man

Rise and fall, all in the name of their God.

Though they stand on clay feet I will always remain.

Built upon the ashes of traitors and saints,

High and resplendent; A monument baptized

By the blood of man in the name of Christ.

My bowels are filled with the malodorous stench

Of incense and decay.  The angels’ mellifluous voices

Fill my cavernous lungs with the lamentations of their martyred king.

My ears fill with insidious lies that flock

Under the guise of a holi(nest)

My domed face points to the sky like a swollen breast

Towering above the sordid streets I smell

The stink of Sodom cling to the city

Like a harlot to her Priapus.

The sinners writhe in their shame like worms

Uprooted from the warmth of the earth.

As they open their ugly mouths eagerly

Awaiting to taste the milk of absolution.

They ask God to forgive their transgressions

And I smell the fear that slithers down their brows

Hoping to quench the horrid flames that lick their blistered feet.

Seated upon a gilded throne of piety

I hear God’s pitiless laughter resound.

Diana

By: Spencer DiSparti

 

You are not the goddess

I thought i knew; nor the huntress

Of the moon.

 

Your youthful face now stained

And scarred by the pain

Of what you really are.

 

Straying into that solemn night

I saw a sadness come to light;

A fairness shone through the veil,

A hidden beauty soon revealed.

 

And in the white-wing’d dawn

I spread across the sky,

Cupping your silver breast, long-

Ing to carress your star-lit eye.

 

On a bed of clouds displayed,

Like a tender flower, you lay;

A crescent smile soured.

 

As the dim light reflected;

Your cold eyes rejected

The ardor within my soul.

 

And in our star-crossed gaze

I saw in you the dream decay

Before our eyes could save

Their virtue.

Scarecrow

By: S. DiSparti

 

Through listless eyes I stare

Off into the distance

My thin-stitched lips I wear

Curled in amusement

Indifferent to the world’s cares

 

A silent god displayed

Upon a splintered cross

The brilliant sun ablaze

Beats against my brow of straw

Amidst the fields burning

I wear a flaming crown

A sacrificed son returning

 

I wear this ugly mask estranged

from every virgin heart that nears

A face that mocks my lonely days

A face that every crow will fear

Sliver

By: Erik Masson

Why am I so afraid to say yes or no?

Why do I deny my own self-worth?

Instead I quiet at the slightest tone

Of judgement.

Slave to the lashings of a silver tongue.

My skin has been peeled, raw to the bone

Ev’ry taunt or jeer burns like acid onto my flesh.

I would stand up if I knew how to walk.

Why can’t I just tell the world to fuck off?!

 

My blood is a running fountain that knows no rest

Wincing at the pain of every little paper cut.

A bitter sliver dug into my finger

Letting the wound fester

Into a stake that plunges deep into my sour heart!

And I hear the harrowing screams echo

Within these fragile walls,

My house threatening to fall.

I wait for the sound of glass to break,

But soon the house grows still

And the only thing I hear is the long,

Ragged breath of defeat resound…

One of Us

You were always one of us

Even though I never let you in

I never really saw you

Until you were gone

Forever my kin

Not One Word

By: Spencer DiSparti

The board lay before them, smiling up at them through wooden teeth; the alphabet never looked so terrifying.  The girls eyes were transfixed upon it, enraptured by it, with a mixture between fear and wonderment.

An electric excitement coursed through their tremulous hands as they both grasped the planchette.  They began to speak in unison; their voices eerie and hollow in the stygian attic.

“Come to us, O Great Spirit!”

The glass eye trembled beneath their grasp, quickly scurrying along the board like a disjointed crab, leaving a trail of letters in its wake.

HELL…O

Their possessed tongues flopped in their little mouths, pulled by invisible strings, and before they could retract them the words spilled from their parched lips.

“What is your name, O Great Spirit?”

The planchette danced across the silent board once again.

A BADD…

ONE.

A nonplussed expression fell on the girls’ faces.

“Were you a bad boy?”  One of the bolder girls asked.

BOY

“Yes, boy, you stupid ghost!”  The girl said in agitation.

“No Jessa, you don’t know who it is.  Don’t mess with it.”  The other girl exclaimed.

“Oh Mary, don’t be such a scaredy-cat.  It’s just a silly game.”

The planchette moved along the board again.

JES…SA

The girl named Jessa guffawed.

“Oooooo, are you trying to scare us?”  She said defiantly.  Then a deviant smile slowly spread across her face.

“Are you the devil?”

Suddenly, the planchette began to shake violently underneath their hands.  The girls shrieked, trying to free their hands from it, but it wouldn’t budge.  It felt like there was a magnet pulling at them.  The hideous eye froze and then slowly crept along the board encircling a word that would never have the same meaning again.

YES