Lonesome October Lit: Halloween 2018

Welcome to our Halloween 2018 special at Lonesome October Lit.

What Orpheus Did Not Know by Sanda Moore Coleman

What Orpheus did not know, of course,
was that she had flirted with death,
that the love-bite of the needle had already
pierced her skin

The Owls Gather to Watch by Rachel Burns

Pegged sheets flap
under a yellow moon

Tall Grass by Amanda Crum

As the town bakes we
take turns riding on the handlebars, weak breeze
ruffling hair like a fatherly hand.

Cold Case by Betsy Housten

for S. (1952-1977)

“And I… will write my story for my better self.”
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My girl – my better self – I’m so sorry. You deserved
a different ending, one befitting the performer we were,
smitten with allegro and adagio and each speed in between.

The Vision of Albaric by Jude Cowan Montague

I saw the e-waste, the e-waste stream,
bubbling scraps of a ghost-glass dream.

Hired Help by Elizabeth York Dickinson

Spilling over like remnants
ready for the dump, the car
piled pieces of a life.

Girl in a Borrowed Cloak by Amanda Oosthuizen

She has fallen from the sky into this dark room where powdery graphite smudges her fingers, where the diamonds scattering the floor cut her feet. And outside the tide clock pounds.

Peanut Love by Chad Musick

Though she’s allergic to my peanut love,
mom makes the lunchtime sandwich each morning,
says a prayer, takes a breath, rewraps the loaf,
tempers my warm smile with her chill warning.

Letters to the Body I Lived In by Danie Shokoohi

1.

Later, you’ll say it was like rosemary.
Like clean. Like lavender

in the bathtub.