Featured art by Brian Sheehan. Click title image to visit his studio.

 

 

Listen to Live Reading

 

 

 

 

Think you know darkness?
Got it all figured out?
Think you may have mastered how to harness it?
Think you know shadows?
Know your way around a rat hole?
Think that may be blackened sludge within your arteries?
Then please allow me to make this most painfully clear
You really do not possess faintest idea

 

You are not safe here
For the shadows you embrace beneath are under orchestration
The icy chill that grips your spine
Under the influence
Frightfully mine
The heart beat erratic of fracture emphatic
Confiding its secret of habit
The dryness of throat
The hardened hands that choke
The feeling deep in pit of gut my pendulum provokes
Well, let us just say that I’m inside you
With view to make the cut

 

Should these outbursts chime alarms then compliments on following the trail of harm thus far
Plus, commiserations on following the trail of harm thus far
Bittersweet this pill, by far
However, we would never dream address requested leave without first getting better worse acquainted
Did I just say we?
My most humble apologies, Freudian slip
Something to do with custodianship or some such
Nothing to weigh down your frown
Come, come now
Delight this
Take very first step into darkness

 

Whatever is wrong?
You appear apprehensive
Meandering convictions are so unrepenting
Fret not, they do not bite
Okay then, maybe they might
Perhaps they’ll simply offer you a fright or two
Nothing to despair over
A dash of aftercare and I will soon have you patched up as good as new
Just as any good head doctor worth their salt and sweat would do
Granted, many would oppose the use of orbitoclast
In this day and age
What can I say?
Modern neurosurgeons really do parade no class

 

They disrespect their heritage
Care not about their roots
And there will be disputes
As they rest mute within their putrid beds
Then wake up cheek to cheek with their loved ones hacked off heads

 

My methods tend to lean a little more towards your backstreet variety
As proprietor of this one time abortion clinic turned sweatshop for deviants removed from society
I can personally guarantee that the procedure will be something of an eye-opener
Do hope you’re not squeamish
As a little voice tells me
Things are soon to get real fiendish
Penny for your thoughts
Here, I’ll throw a few in the suggestion box to get the home flame warm

 

no anesthetic – i insist upon you being very much lucid as i chip, chip away – it’s a funny kind of pain – but i shall make sure you stay in the know the whole bloody way – my instruments are both grubby and stained – must have slipped my mind to wash all the backed up grunge away – and by the way – you ever felt a maggot lay its larvae on your frontal lobe while burrowing your brain – something of an acquired taste – my way of getting better acquainted if you will – and we shall – be the very closest of doctor-patients by the time i get through with you – may surprise you learn that heaven does indeed have a fair clue what I am planning to do to you – must have slipped their mind – though i could have sworn they had the time to – oh well – judging by the soiled bed linen – i would say it’s high time to get the ice pick swinging

 

Just a thought
And here is another
Compliments of the house
Have you ever found it strange that trouble fares up better doubled?
Have you ever entertained that two for sorrow need not borrow?
Have you ever felt a pain so blind it makes your eyes stream pale white screams?
Have you ever been screened by one with rapidly worsening mental disease?
We have
Results were inconclusive

 

Regrettably, we are now approaching your very own conclusion
Thus, I believe it would be a good time to meet my partner in unsolved crime and other disillusions
Look into the shadows you are facing
Take in a deep breath through your nose
Direct it to your diaphragm
Hold it there
Just a little longer
Feel our grip around your throat growing steadily stronger
Now…
Come Darkness
Bequeath