this cape cod of two gables with dirt floor & this dream
i’ve been having since toddlerdom —
it’s kingdom-castle, crown-tiara, or william castle with
gaffes, plastic skeletons flung out from the cinema
rafters, limbs wood-chiming & clunk-bellied. i am there, holding
apples to cheer you. they are red & so is the velvet & so
is the carpeting & so is the faux blood i use for corneal jewels. nothing i own has ever been murdered, including my time on this earth. i am the velvet
& the plastic & the rage. i store horror in my eyelids
like a last glance, boxed & labeled. i’m weeping spider
rings of assorted colors, splintering gourd seeds dirt-deep to make
pumpkins. my ma told me monsters are real & they’re coming
& they’re closer & some of them have been in me all along. here’s the truth
that keeps me in the lamb-bath where i don’t need my eyes
for anything else except being the last thing to live underwater. here comes
the stones & the pisces & the lithobolia — this house is false with its prayer-
closet, all weather now.
Kailey Tedesco
Kailey Tedesco is the author of She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publishing), These Ghosts of Mine, Siamese (Dancing Girl Press), and Lizzie, Speak (White Stag Publishing). She currently teaches courses on the witch in literature, among other subjects, in Bethlehem, PA. She is also a senior editor for Luna Luna Magazine and a co-curator for Philly’s A Witch’s Craft reading series. You can find her work featured or forthcoming in Electric Literature, Fairy Tale Review, Bone Bouquet Journal, Black Warrior Review, Grimoire,and more. For other information, please follow @kaileytedesco.
Artwork: Abigail Larson, Tears
Website: http://www.abigaillarson.com/
Gingerbread House Lit Mag 