Aphelion Issue 293, Volume 28
September 2023
 
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Back to the Asylum

by Alexis Child


Swimming up from the bottom
of a black sleep,
Nightmare tumbles out
into still morning.
The Narcissist King
Remains on his throne.
Outside, the wind screams,
howling like a dog

Your big brown eyes
are everywhere
Teeth gleaming
like tombstones.
Chill grips my heart
With mortal ache.
My past hangs in the room
as a thick cloud.
Heavy shapes lean over me
like nurses attending to the infirm.
You were just the sort of drug
a woman would invent

A windowless corridor of pain
threatens to shut me in again.
Memories circle empty air,
sliding down my back
like a cold draft
as Summer ends.

A fog of echoes,
And I am caught.
We are astronauts
Asleep in the sea.
The home will weep
With ugly's frown


© 2021 Alexis Child. All rites reserved until the worms crawl in…

Alexis Child hails from Toronto, where horror in its purest form is a calculated crime against both the aspirations of the soul and affections of the heart. She worked at a Call Crisis Centre, befriending demons of the mind that roam freely amongst her writings, once lived with a Calico-cat child sleuthing all that went bump in the night, and is haunted by the memory of her cat.

Her fiction has been featured in Schlock Magazine, The Official Fields of the Nephilim Site, SinisterCity, and U.K.’s Dark of Night Magazine.

Her poetry has been featured in numerous online and print publications, including Aphelion, Black Petals, Blood Moon Rising Magazine, The Horror Zine and elsewhere.

Her first collection of poetry, Devil in the Clock, a dark and sinister slice of macabre horror, gothic, surreal supernatural poetry is now available on Amazon.

Visit her website: http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/alexischild/

Find more by Alexis Child in the Author Index.

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