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Having a bad life? Read about one that’s worse: liebestod, deep depression, mental illness, suicide, death, and miraculous resurrection (the ultimate happy ending). Feel better? The Ward at Twilight: Goth Poems skillfully blends two distinct literary traditions (stylish contemporary poetry and the vintage Gothic in American and British literature) for the blackest witch’s brew of insightful reading pleasure.

Book 2 of the Cabin Reading Series.

This book was nominated for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association’s Elgin Award.

Sample Poems

THE SKELETON COMPANY

The carpet beetle cleans us
to the bone, ticking away
like a small watch. In its cage, the heart sang
like a canary. Now it’s a dried-up rose.
Where bellows blew words hot:
a solemn silence. I have met the members,
all whose names do not appear
in the letterhead: the medal-spangled Nazi,
the Camorra gunman, the black-pearl pusher.
The flunkies, too— those slight deaths:
the train’s departure, the priest’s sigh.
All those other little debts add up.
And reps have shown me how: the chair,
the rope, the bomb, yes, all the steps
that led down to a cellar of jaws.
But, thin one, where’s the boss,
the one who grows these stones?
And when is my appointment?

~~

VAMPIRE VALENTINE

Not: Darling, I adore you.
But: Dear Unit of Blood, Type A.

Thanks for the pint.
I’d appreciate a quart by the full moon.

I, doing what I have to do, suck.
You, doing what you do best, bleed.

So drip, drip, drip, my grape.
Another drop. Ah!

But not too much. Let me perform the phlebotomy.
Let me draw off the red wine in your cask.

Look deep into my eyes. Sleeeeep.
No crucifix or garlic saves you now.

Sweetheart, I love you this way— with venipuncture.
It’ll only hurt when I insert the fangs.

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