BAD DREAMS

​

Stephanie Smith

 

I am that creature who slithers through the mist

sniffing through the sinew and suffering

I bear the pain of a thousand eons

 

It's not reality I wallow in—but bad dreams

I forage through the gore

dragging the skins of my fathers who came before me

 

I cannot die.

The wind carries me on its crippled wing

to an abattoir

where death sings its cacophonous chorus

 

Still, I rise like the phoenix

licking insanity from my lips

tasting flesh for the very first time

​

     Stephanie Smith is a poet and writer from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Her work has appeared in such publications as THE HORROR ZINE, CARNAGE HOUSE, APHELION, RAVEN CAGE, THE LITERARY HATCHET, and ILLUMEN.