A strangled sound,

almost hollow,

whistles mutely

calling for acknowledgement;

I try to blithely glare away

blinded by a red eye

beeping, blinking me apart.

Turning, it follows,

tracking my retreating steps

with its dilated, beady eye:

a monster in the corner

of my woven world;

present in every folded corner:

an inverted fairytale

with no sweet-filled cottage

or lyricism to propel a lullaby.

As night falls,

its effervescence strengthens,

shining resplendently against

a black tapestry,

nocturnal curtains twisting

in the building breeze.

A macabre beauty exists

here, and within,

like fairy-lights on spidery legs,

unfurling in furred surrender

yet holding my intrigue

as a tumbling Christmas tree,

fractious in its fall from Grace.

As I sleep,

ruby sirens lace my dreams

where I bathe in bloodless red

letting it soothe as a balm,

filling in fissures of skin:

a form of liquid Kintsugi

with orbital, blinking eyes.

Emma is a mother and English teacher. She has poetry published with various literary journals and magazines. She enjoys writing flash fiction and short stories also.  

Emma won Wingless Dreamer’s Bird Poetry Contest of 2022 and her short story entitled ‘Virginia Creeper’ was selected as a winning title by WriteFluence Singles Contest in 2021. 

Recently, she won Dipity Literary Magazine’s 2024 Best of the Net Nominations for Fiction with her short story entitled ‘The Voice of a Wildling’.