POETRY BY LINDAANN LOSCHIAVO

Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a four-time nominee for The Pushcart Prize, was also nominated for Best of the Net, Balcones Poetry Prize, an Ippy, a Firecracker Award, the Rhysling Award, and Dwarf Stars.

She is a member of the British Fantasy Society, HWA, SFPA, and The Dramatists Guild.
    
Titles for 2022: Women Who Were Warned (Cerasus Poetry) and Messengers of the Macabre: Hallowe’en Poems (Audience Askew).
     
2023: Apprenticed to the Night (UniVerse Press), Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide (Ukiyoto Publishing), and Vampire Ventures (Alien Buddha Press).
     
Forthcoming in 2024: Cancer Courts My Mother (Penumbra/Stanislaus State College) and Always Haunted: Hallowe’en Poems (Wild Ink Publishing).
     
Forthcoming in 2025: Eros and His Entourage (Naked Cat Press).

THE CURATOR OF CURSES

Old hexes have wings, travel like storm clouds.
Secrets, like roots, persist―unnoticed by most.

Few know my real name nor biography.
My job requires maintaining old curses,
Preserving paid commissions put in place
By ancestors. Their maledictions hold.
“Our charms span generations,” they’d explained.

These spells cast shadows, darkness that is real.

I’m new in town―always. The clerk, polite,
Asks what’s my line of work that brings me here.
Straight-faced, I say, “Legacy management.”

VAMPIRES IN TRAINING

Pretending to be me, a well-paid blonde
Appears to host my Instagram account,
Engages with my followers, replies
Politely in my “voice,” negotiates
All sponsorship requests, promotes my book.

Before I died, I didn’t taste success.

My maker, who bestowed the gift, arrived
When I was 55, revealed how to
Shape-shift witnessed by the moon’s upturned face.

            Spoiler alert: that’s not in my memoir.

Fresh blood that energizes vamps must be
Emboldened by passion — a desire
For living, the best nourishment on which to feed.

Next comes exhilaration:  plan the hunt,
Select the prize.  No matter what you’ve heard,
Blood type’s no concern—just vibrancy.

            Another cut involved text deemed obscene
Because I gushed: “The kill! Yes, yes, the kill!”

Imagine this: blood pumping, spurting straight
From puncture’s wounds, red tears in human flesh,
Aromas coppery, sweet pungent sweat,
As it’s consumed, tonight’s hot chalice drained.

Instructions newbies need were all excised.

My lawyers helped combat that censorship.
Click on the link to join my master class.
Ten percent off — if you pay by midnight.

RENDEZVOUS WITH THE DEAD

Magic the moonlight’s power to befriend
The dead. Prepare a blood-bone sacrifice,
White smoke annihilating past mistakes.

See his reflection on Midsummer’s Eve
In clear champagne. Project forgiveness, love.

Outgrow what binds allegiance to the earth.

Uncommon erasures within the sky
Permits a glimpse into the intricate
Realm called the afterlife. Now grasp his hands.

Relax into a downward drift of calm.

Reunions can defy what you’d expect.
It won’t be written down what happens next
As wayward clouds and nightjars hold their breath.