Poems

Coal-Heart Choir of the Brimstone Snowmen [Wraith]Winter slid over hell like a sheet of burned glass, air brittle with sulfur and frostbit smoke that clawed at every breath,and from the slag-black drifts along the frozen river of ash the first brimstone snowman rose, stitched from cinders, slag, and death.They packed him together with hands that […]

Confetti That Refused To Leave [Wreath]By morning, the house looks guilty in that way only a place can when it knows what happened inside it six hours ago and is pretending to have no idea,Empty bottles lean against each other under the coffee table like exhausted conspirators who ran out of gossip and carbonation at

Clocked Out, Still Carrying Chains [Wraith]Labor Day drags in on rubber legs and lukewarm light, the air thick with grill smoke, cut grass, and cheap beer breath hanging over alleys like a tired parade that forgot why it formed,and every front porch warrior in a folding chair swears this one long weekend is salvation, one

Coal-Eyed Carols in a Burning Yard [Wraith]Winter rolled in like a lazy murderer with perfect alibis, dragging clouds over the cul-de-sac and dumping snow on every cheap plastic reindeer in sight,The kind of snow that looks innocent from the window, all muffled edges and quiet streets, while underneath it waits for ankles, tires, and backbones

Christmas HellThe bells toll through December’s deadened air—where’s the light? swallowed in some bottomless pit. Phantoms dressed in holiday ragsdrift through carols nobody sings anymore,slinking through corners where joy used to live. Christmas Hell. No salvation anywhere.Just the crush of bleakness pressing downwhile hearts come undone in the dark. Black trees stand with nothing on

Circle Hung Where My Sanity Lives [Wraith]The day it came the sky had that dirty dishwater color that turns the streetlights on too early and makes every sound outside feel a little too close to the skin,I opened the door to nobody, just cold air with bad manners and a cardboard box on the mat,

Chestnuts Over An Open Hellmouth [Wraith]The old brick fireplace groans like it remembers better winters, the kind with polite snow and carols in key, yet tonight it yawns wider than it should and shows too many teeth in the coal-glow grin,Someone strung stockings across the mantle as if cotton and thread could hold back anything

Chipped Mugs And Midnight Reruns [Wreath] The couch leans just a little too far toward the center of the room,like it has heard every argument and every make up and finally picked a side,and the coffee table is scarred with old hot chocolate rings and one cigarette burnfrom that winter we swore we were done

Ceiling Constellations Of Cheap Wire [Wreath]The house has finally exhaled, that long end-of-day breath where the walls stop listening so hard and the floorboards loosen their jaw, the dishwasher grumbles in the kitchen like an old man telling himself one last story, and all the human noise has shuffled off toward bedrooms with phones in

Cheap Stars On Plastic Wire [Wreath]They come out of boxes that still smell faintly of last year’s dust and spilled cinnamon, those knotted strings of fake stars coiled like patient snakes that have spent eleven months conserving judgment on your life,Pulled from the attic with a sneeze and a curse, dragged down past the photo