The Scarlet Serpent (poem)

Heartbreak coils around him
those scarlet scales shimmering in the dark
that familiar serpent with gouged out eyes
tightening its grip, he exposes his neck
heartbreak unwinds its spiralling jaw
revealing rows of blunt teeth, punctuated
by four long folding hollow fangs
that secrete foggy memories of her with every bite.
He collapses into the mess of his bed
the venom spreads, replacing dopamine with pain.
Blood slips out from him as the snake pauses,
only for a moment – it will never be sated,
the serpent will coil, constrict, and grow
until its prey lay still, no love left to give -
or until he realizes he can starve it
by uncoiling his fingers from the neck of the past,
let it fall into the floor and disappear
her along with it.

-Zero

December Fog (poem)

A thick fog covers the city,
brought by a frozen rain never fallen.
from the cemetery on the hill, I look out
at buildings erected, tombstones for the living.

No matter how much we dress them up,
decorate them with wreaths and Christmas lights,
still they’ll be monuments to what we’ve lost:
friends and family, faded or buried.

In this thick December fog, I wander,
floating between now and then,
a ghost haunting the memories illuminated
by the fading lights of the last Christmas.

-Zero

summer notes on the breeze (poem)

sunlight crashes down onto the plaster balcony
raspberry leaves stretch out from a crowded planter
that had roses in it once, I hear
a honeysuckle vine crawls its way up to the roof
and down into the neighbour's empty balcony

she sits out there on a wooden chair
coffee steaming from her old cracked mug
as she does a crossword cut from the paper
with a thick tape over all of the answers

I see her through the sliding glass door
bathed in sunlight, bordered by flowering raspberry,
this quiet moment, quiet morning,
these summer notes on the breeze.

-Zero

no happy ending will ever find me (poem)

The sickening smell of this room is imprinted on me
the walls oozing and cracked – no light slips through
I sit and I wait, I hope and I pray
to be okay, to be rescued from this prison
cement walls etched with desperation
my bloody fingernails still lodged in them
though I sit in the corner and clutch my knees

The last light I saw led me here
had me on my knees in worship
offering it my whole being however it wanted,
so it took the door away, and then the windows
until I was alone with nothing but darkness
and the stink of rot and coagulated blood
in this room I call my home.

No happy ending will ever find me here,
it will not erupt out of the cold hard floor
nor ooze through the cracks in the halls.
No, here in this place where hopes go to die,
I will write an ending for myself
written over and over in my own blood
until it corrodes the walls themselves
and gives me the freedom I'd die for.

 -Zero