The July Selected Poet is Charles Gramlich
Please feel free to email Charles at: cagramlich11@gmail.com
RIVER OF LOVE’S DREAMING
Beside a river of love’s dreaming,
with the glint of water and night,
and a mouth awash with moonlight,
she lay broken.
Eyes in her face eclipsed…
Heart like a cinder…
Dancing a stumble, I came upon her,
my own heart suspended by a thread,
doubting all, perceiving only dread,
praying an end.
Words on my lips fossilized…
Hopes like ashes…
In a forest abandoned by crows,
with tangled hair of sodden moss,
and the ghostly wings of moths,
she whispered my name.
Bones in her flesh burned…
Blood like amber…
Singing in screams, I lay beside her,
to wear a sweet cold like armor,
to listen and to charm her,
and whisper in return:
The river of love’s dreaming…
erodes a canyon.
RECIPE FOR DISASTER
A soupcon of cryptic ergot
One angel’s fractured ankle
A single midnight hair from Medusa
Mix with quicklime and venom
Allow to set
Bake fifteen minutes in a
Basilisk’s glare
Serve cold
SERPENT RAIN
I pray at dusk for sainted rain,
for holy fire to burn free
my sins.
And when the moon arises,
I kneel in sweat to sacrifice
my pain.
But at midnight, I despair.
For the dark is heavy,
like silver in the hands of
Judas.
The empty seals my eyes,
sews my lips.
Only toward dawn does hope
burnish my thoughts.
When I see the false early light,
my pupils open to slits.
The serpent heart inside me
flutters.
The sun rises anew.
Perhaps today,
I will be forgiven.
Charles Gramlich lives in Louisiana and is the author of The Talera Fantasy Series, the SF novel Under the Ember Star, and the thriller, Cold in the Light. His poetry has appeared in magazines such as Star*Line, Niteblade, Beat to a Pulp, Dreams and Nightmares, and Pedestal Magazine. Charles’s work is generally available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Wildside Press. His chapbook of vampire haiku, Wanting the Mouth of a Lover, is out of print and available only via email.
Charles is on facebook and blogs at:
http://charlesgramlich.blogspot.com/