Here is what your journey left you:
Life in limbo; snake-bit ankles,
serpentine windpipe, the slither of dead veins,
crusted with half-blood. Life split
like a baby’s skull, shattered into
turbaned servant,
emerald locket,
grandfather’s weathered ring,
golden goblet,
diadem,
beheaded snake, and cold crash of
lightning.

You were once old school robes,
musky, youthful things, fabric green as
growth. Your mystic laughter danced like magic
until you realized that laughter too is mortal.

Now, you are only the dust
of forgotten spells, a name that stings
the common tongue like venom. Synonymous with
the shudder of bone, crush of organs, shocked stop
of heart under killing curse, you are
an infamous anagram; snake charmer, soul
splitter—

Forever a little boy, withered
in a chipped-brick orphanage, destined to
break and break and
break.

Jessica Prescott

 

Jessica Prescott is an avid author, artist, and screenwriter residing in Jacksonville, FL.  She has received numerous accolades, including a national gold medal in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and a national semi-finalist position in the Norman Mailer Creative Nonfiction Competition. She has been published in Elan and Scholastic’s Illuminations.

Artwork: Tran Nguyen, “When We Vomit Carcasses of Unattended Thoughts”
Website: http://www.mynameistran.com/

28 Aug This entry was published on August 28, 2015 at 12:07 am and is filed under 14 (August 2015), Archive, Poetry. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.