C.X.Turner

scooping out
the setting sun
of his remains

— C.X.Turner

ghost tour

shining a light

on my past

— C.X.Turner

Christopher Peys

predawn
something up ahead
eyes aglow

— Christopher Peys

Lorraine A Padden

La Brea tar pits
a visitor admires
the long gestation

— Lorraine A Padden

lady fingers

a stray nail

in the custard

— Lorraine A Padden

Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

pins and needles
all over her
voodoo doll body

— Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

Eavonka Ettinger

how it ended
broken bones carved
by a bandsaw

— Eavonka Ettinger

Jackie Chou

Descanso Garden 
the moving lips 
of camellias 

— Jackie Chou 

rusty mirror

my mother’s face

in the reflection

— Jackie Chou 

Hifsa Ashraf

dripping blood 
from the window icicles 
late winter dusk 

— Hifsa Ashraf

witch-hunting

circle around the fire

black moths

 

— Hifsa Ashraf

Mark Gilbert

dawn chorus
the undead
are early risers

— Mark Gilbert

Roberta Beach Jacobson

rockslide crunch of riverbed bones

— Roberta Beach Jacobson

Mona Bedi

night train—
a headless man
gives me company

— Mona Bedi

ancestral house

my dead grandma sings

me a lullaby

— Mona Bedi

petro c. k.

jack-o’-lantern and me rotting flesh

— petro c. k.

Chad Lee Robinson

opening the coffin
for final adjustments . . .
a white moth

— Chad Lee Robinson

close lightning . . .

a clown doll

in the rocking chair

— Chad Lee Robinson

Terrie Jacks

lengthening shadows
linger mute
among the mums

— Terrie Jacks

John Hawkhead

paper lanterns
such thin material
over her bones

— John Hawkhead

funeral rite 

everyone must dance

to their own tune

— John Hawkhead

Mariel Herbert

a claw
slices the veil
ninth life

— Mariel Herbert

before

the doorbell rings

stabbing wind

— Mariel Herbert

Rowan Beckett Minor

old dirt road
he buries his son
on top of his wife

— Rowan Beckett Minor

Devil’s hour—

a swarm of flies

surround the priest

— Rowan Beckett Minor

Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta

blood moon lurking in the stairwell shadows

— Sankara Jayanth Sudanagunta

Joshua Gage

wax poppet
the taste of her
after the miscarriage

— Joshua Gage

replacement nanny

bloody feathers cling

to her mohair shawl

— Joshua Gage

Rich Schilling

alley shadows
rats scurry into
a corpse mouth

— Rich Schilling

cleaning the crawl space

spiderlings scatter

from a skull

— Rich Schilling

Debbie Strange

devil’s urn a squirrel pokes out the pumpkin’s eye

— Debbie Strange

ossuary all the bones that don’t belong

— Debbie Strange