Frisson 1 by Ravens Quoth Press

Author:Ravens Quoth Press
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ravens Quoth Press

CAROL EDWARDS is a northern California native transplanted to southern Arizona. Her poetry has been published in many anthologies, periodicals, online magazines, and blogs. Her debut poetry collection, The World Eats Love, released on April 25, 2023 from The Ravens Quoth Press. Follow her on Instagram @practicallypoetical, Twitter and Facebook @practicallypoet

Website: practicallypoetical.wordpress.com

Lethe’s Song

by Carol Edwards

The silence is what makes the voices come back

the dreams

they start thin, a whispering

a scrape of snake scales, or baby cactus spines

they blend with the hum of air conditioning

with ceiling fan whirs

they show her jagged cracks

bright red rivulets

her own arm broken, fingers bent ​at unnatural angles

cradled against her cold

heart

beating

slows, vision blurs,

whimpers for help ignored.

Lying in an empty house, walls white,

the voices echo,​​“Why are you here?”

Why are you here…

She has no place there, in that pristine light

the long hallway shows one door, open wide

yawning pitch-stained spider threads​

echoed in sterile rooms​cries for help

ignored

arms mummy wrapped

at unnatural angles

head pounding, ​pounding

just the sparking ache

in her eyes

down her spine

soft tissues

paralyzed​​sobs of pain ignored.

The music makes it stop—

drains her broken hands numb

eaten in nothingness

can’t feel them reach,​creep, ​grasp,

can’t hear the gasps for help

can’t see the dead rivers, the black branches

just the soft shadows at the edges

doorway yawning

Death yawning

​sleeping

lying on cold, sterile white.

The music tells her she belongs there—

soothes the demons in her hands

in her mind, ​her spine

​the vice in her eyes.

​She forgets the voices exist

​forgets she exists…

forgets the gashes on her hands

the purple blooms and burning brands

forgets the grinning lines in her skin

bare thighs split into red-rimmed lips

​“Why are you here?”

Why are you here…

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