POETRY BY MELISSA R. MENDELSON
Melissa R. Mendelson is a horror, science-fiction and dystopian author and poet. Her writing has been published by many publications including Page Turn Press, Altered Reality Magazine, State of Matter Magazine, Owl Canyon Press, Wild Ink Publishing, The Horror Zine and The Yard: Crime Blog. She is the author of the self-published sci-fi novella, Waken, and she is also the author of the prose poetry collection, This Will Remain With Us published by Wild Ink Publishing.
SHIVER
I was choked by a shadow
who was intent on taking my life
but paused when I demanded to know why.
I watched him try to think of reasons
why I should be killed
but couldn’t find an excuse.
Instead, I found myself staring into his eyes
as he moved away
into a white patch of light,
and I realized that he was crossing over.
I faintly remembered him approaching my bed
to whisper his good-byes into my ear
when I looked up at him
and cursed him
for disturbing my sleep,
and all he wanted
was to say he loved me
and lost control
when I pushed him away.
I watched him vanish into the light
and rubbed the sore spots on my neck.
How can a spirit love
when he resents the fact
that he is not the one alive?
I watched the light disappear
and went back to bed,
but I turned around
to say, “I love you too”
before slipping into a dream
where I thought this was real.
EDGE OF OBLIVION
Hate is the darkness swirling within us
and pounding the door
that keeps it inside
to avoid falling victim
to the warmth of ignorance
that will sweep us into oblivion
and then drop us
into the arms of death
to suffer in limbo with the dead
as their blood washes our hands.
NOT KNOWING RENDERS YOU BLIND
We live in dark times,
and the darkness is our friend.
It’s comfort against the silence.
It’s solitude against fear.
Its hope is the candlelight against the window,
showing us what lies outside,
and we believe what we see.
No questions asked,
and if questioned,
the darkness answers back gently,
soothing any and all doubt.
And we succumb to its care,
believing that the darkness is our friend,
never realizing the light in the window
is our hope stripped to a pale glimmer.
Our world downsized to a fragment.
Our lives left to despair.