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Mark Mackey

The January Editor's Pick Poet is Mark Mackey

Please feel free to email Mark at: markmm77@comcast.net

street

ON THE WAY TO GRANDMA’S HOUSE

The sky grim and gloomy
Her hand gripping a picnic basket
Stuffed with mouthwatering foods
A teenage Red Riding Hood
Shedding the little to prove her maturity
Traversed through
dense woods
By chance
she saw something
Which drilled her with
icy cold dread
Authentic true to life wolves
Exactly like the ones
she had
A dilemma with
As a tender young child
Differentiating these wolves
From that one
They had no fur
Cold metallic steel skin in its stead.
piercing red eyes
Remarkably they had the ability of flight
These bizarre constructions
sang out a bizarre
Mewling as they gave pursuit
Chilling her to the bone
She was persuaded
to put on a burst of immense speed
to elude them
Alas, this wasn’t what the future held for her
Continuing to sprint
for her antiquarian ancestor’s
Humble cottage
She was snatched up
by one of these wolves
It forced her to relinquish
her hold on the basket
It plummeted to the ground
as her metallic
lupine abductor
Spirited her away
to an enormous silver
circular flying machine
of some sort
Ultimate destination
A strange world called Jupiter.

MORELLA NEWCASTLE

Garbed in a silky blood red gown
A long cloak wrapped around her
Stared with youthful eyes at the castle
it stood dark and foreboding
an bleak ornament
topping off a bleak mountain
far off in the distance
rumored to be haunted by
the spirit of Evelyn Gastenmire
cursed to be damned for eternity for the act of
hurdling herself off the top of it in despair
her pair of offspring daughter and son
stricken down with dread consumption
before they could blossom into adulthood
she trembled with unparalleled fear over this
the gallop of her horses hoofs
pounding on hardened ground
filling her ears
strenuously pulling the carriage
she was contained in.
Attending the lavish masquerade ball
was of more importance
Unbeknownst to her
For some unknown reason
she sensed this was her last journey
Yet, she traversed on with a brave heart
This night would be her last

HE DREAMED

The air smoky
A minute past midnight
Seen through it
Her pale, chalk skin
brilliant, blood red lips
long elongated teeth
Her seductive appearance
unable for him to resist
Gliding towards him
He felt the sharp points of these teeth
Penetrate his neck

Mark Mackey is a speculative fiction writer who now resides in Rockford Illinois after spending an abundance of time in Chicago. The author’s stories can be found in various anthologies, some charity, some not, including some belonging to Australian publishers, Black Hare Press as well as Suicide House Publishing, now known as Nocturnal Sirens Publishing (headed by Natalie Brown), Books of Horror Community Anthology, and Rejected compiled and created by Erin Kathleen/Erin Crocker, and more.