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In a faraway place and faraway time
stood square a cabin rotted pine and bramble flue.
Once haven for old crones craven - their skins thin-skinned slivers of brine;
now nary a soot line marked a witches' brew.

In the dark, swirling silver stark and creatures would quiver
held over ***-stew thither, along hymns of damning chanted.
Waggled tongues with an evil glaze would slither,
cursing in eye, toe, and liver the bubbling broth decanted.

Oh a malkin giggled and a paddock piggled;
sniggled in a mirth-marked cauldron's rubble double bubble.
With a whoosh and a swish a bony finger had wiggled,
as papery skin withered the drubble swuddle brubble.

On those blackest of nights, when wolves would fear the moon,
howls held loomed, choked on down the throat of dusk.
Hatred uttered its sleepy breath, pitch-entombed
and justice marooned under a tar most brusque.

Shadows danced incantation
for an occultish creation, oh the devil's bidding be done!
Flamed carnation, neither here nor there god-fearing,
cackling a primrose coronation; the stirring spoon spun!

Death-catcher chimes hung close upon the entry;
a dust since turn of century marred bone;
witches’ wart-encrusted noses crinkled at gentry;
chenille voices sung with celerity a hellish praise: Divinum Occultum.

A little duende ran down the cauldron,
gloom chanting a chant come out with a hurl.
Burnt feet chasing away all ghosts ‘n goblins,
unfurling like whisper from the concoction:

Doom upon all the world.
Some notes on terms and usage:

Flue: Another word for chimney.

Malkin & Paddock: There are quite a few meanings associated with malkin and paddock; however, I use them conjunctively as a slight nod to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where a malkin and a paddock (cat and toad) were the witches’ animals.

Piggled: Nonsense word I use to mean squirmed.

Sniggled: Eel fishing. The poor toad was dunked into the cauldron.

Rubble double bubble … drubble swuddle brubble: Onomatopoeia for a boiling cauldron, starting out steady and then boiling over.

Brusque: Abrupt or rough. Used alongside tar to create a sense of wrongness as tar is slow and sticky.

Gentry: people of high social class.

Celerity: Swiftness.

Divinum Occultum: Latin for “The Divine Secret”. A perverse take on Divinum Officium, “The Divine Duty”, or the official set of prayers used in Catholicism.

Duende (Do-en-day): Spanish/Latin American version of a gnome- or dwarf-like spirit. Depending on the type, a duende may or may not be mischievous; however, used in the context of the poem, you can be sure there’s mischief afoot.

The underlying structure of the poem mostly follows a simple A, AB, A, AB rhyming format in each stanza.
Bekah Nov 2024
Lilac skies and dreamy meadows
A world that knows no blue
Hazy, milky clouds of smoke
Breeze lazily past the moon

A starry sky reflecting
All my hopes and dreams
I’m pounding at the walls
But no one hears my screams

I search for the meaning
In the world I left behind
Through the fog I wander
In a realm that knows no time

The echoes of my cries
Fade into the mist
An illusory existence
In a world that can’t be kissed
Slugish Nov 2024
You were controlling.
You were horrible
I hate you
You hate me
You cheated
You left
You didn't speak to me
You ghosted me
You left your stuff at my house
and now you want it back.
(>'-'<)
funny little story!
Kiernan Norman Nov 2024
(Verse)
I spit out shards of last night's dream,
chasing threads and fractured schemes.
I wear my bruises like hand-stitched lace,
daring the dawn to match my pace.

Two summers dissolved, one in the wings,
winter-break and blooming, all gray, tangled strings.
I'm stranded between lost-cause and unfound,
with roots in the sky and feet on the ground.

(Pre-Chorus)
And isn't it tragic, the way ghosts take form?
You're a pattern, a habit, a half-hearted storm.
If you looked at me once like you meant to stay,
would it settle the dust or just ******* away?

(Chorus)
It's almost poetic, the way I play my part—
one foot in daylight, the other in the dark.
Fighting-fit and fighting-mad, memories that churn,
clinging to the sighing bridge I watched you cross then burn.

And if I said I could love you, would it land?
Or hang in the air, a threat, all hollow and ******?
And if I said I love you, would it even land?

(Verse)
Said you resented how I used you to ache,
like I cast you as fire while I burned at the stake.
Said I wore my wounds like jewels dripping down
a cocotte smile, a  martyr's crown.

Called me blameless, a darling saint,
a canonized victim in delicate paint.
But I've learned to love the heft of scars,
wearing ashes you left like fallen stars.

(Pre-Chorus)
And isn't it just twisted, the way you choose to haunt?
A vivid grace, a clever chase, a truth you did not want.
You planted roots in a garden you'd leave,
an empty grave I still water and grieve.

(Chorus)
It's almost poetic, the way I play my part—
one foot in daylight, the other in the dark.
Fighting-fit and fighting-mad, memories that churn,
clinging to the sighing bridge I watched you cross then burn.

And if I said I could love you, would it land?
Or hang in the air, a threat, all hollow and ******?
And if I said I love you, would it even land?

(never-ending Bridge)
When we talked about kids, with laughter on lips,
madness like heirlooms, sweet apocalypse.
“It’s not right to ******* around,”
you dropped your bombs as I star-gazed from the ground.

You loved me in riddles, in half-truths and smoke,
left me craving the punchlines to every cruel joke.
Appointed me Queen of an empire gone
a plot-line twisted, a catastrophic denouement.

Asked you to visit, heart laid bare,
big house, empty rooms, “Come, love me there.”
What do you think of when your hands get bored?
Do they crave the inches you never explored?

Kissed me in theory, ****** me in words,
left me aching in metaphors, splintered in thirds.
Does my short-skirt-restless stir you, ten years gone by?
Do you see I’m getting cuter? A five-foot fine-wine.

Think of me late, when you can't get clean,
when desire drips slow, my name gasoline.
I dream of you younger, long hair, frayed seams,
like a well-timed kiss could rewrite dropped lines, silent screams.

Now I wonder where you are, in what state, what bed,
if you ever read my poems or regret what you said?
Maybe you think of me, brilliant, unbridled-
or maybe I'm nothing—worthless, exiled.

(Chorus)
It's almost poetic, the way I play my part—
one foot in daylight, the other in the dark.
Fighting-fit and fighting-mad,
on my knees but singing
verses from scars still stinging.

And if I said I could love you, would it land?
Or hang like a ghost, hollow and ******?
And if I said I love you, would it even land?

(Outro)
It's been a long time coming, this curse, this lust,
I've woven us into poems, stitched from rust.
If I said I loved you, could you let it stand,
without closing your fist around my trembling hand?

Think of me fondly, then punch out a wall—
echoes from bridges you’re compelled to let fall.
I don't think it'd land.
I know it wouldn't land.
wouldn’t land.
I wrote this as a poem but don't know music. help?
I'm lighting up a candle

For the person you

Once was

. . .

Because right now

It seems you have killed him

And all that's left were memories
Lizzie Bevis Nov 2024
A phantom cast where living once dwelled,  
a figure moves under a tight-lipped spell,  
with eyes like stars,
yet veiled in the night,  
an enigma wrapped in soft twilight.  
They whisper in riddles
and breathe in your dreams,  
replaying a moment cracked at the seams,  
each smile is a puzzle,
each laugh a clue,  
leaving a labyrinth of thoughts
to mull over and review.  
As I wonder,
What lies hidden in their empty gaze
and what stories linger in their ethereal haze?  
It is a mystery unsolved,
a moment truly bizarre,  
as they offer a brief glimpse of what they are.

©️Lizzie Bevis
Tania Carvalho Oct 2024
Whoever walks the path at midnight candle in hand
Is processing and prophesied
Deceased and dead
But only in the morning could everyone know
That their fate has been sealed on death row

A boy had been watching to see whose death would be sealed in history
The boy saw two candles that night
But he couldn’t tell: a secret, his mouth held tight
He needed to save them, to their houses he flew
But before he reached the gate an owl in the tree above asked “who?”

They said he couldn’t tell
Better bite your tongue
The spirits will get angry, the owl sung
Go home don’t tell your family no one can know what you saw
You reap what you sow
Now take your secret and go

He waited till morning
To know if they died
The owl asleep while the boy awaked
But, through the night, the owl watched over them for his sake
They lived, but he’s convinced their death day awaits
On the day his secret spills, and he can no longer carry this weight

And every night since then the boy never takes that path home
He hasn't learned to keep secrets
And he cannot carry that weight alone.
J Oct 2024
I feel like a ghost
I’m neither here nor there
Always within that in between

Filling up some unused space
Creaking floorboards beneath my feet

I’m that chill in the air

Barely there

A soft whisper
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