Category: [witchcraft & wonder]

we get a bad rep as
sex crazed demons out to devour your soul
but the truth is far more complicated
I can taste your pleasure on my tongue
when I make you laugh
I breathe in your happiness
when you read those text messages
from your special friend
oh yes
my sweet pet
I feed off of everything that brings you joy
sex is like a candy bar
a quick sugar fix but never a good meal
let me swallow your smile until I’m full to bursting
trust me when I say you can do it
feed the succubus in me with all your clothes still on

if you squint a bit
you can see the truth about me
yes
I am a dragon
my true form hidden inside of
tattooed skin and wild hair
but look
I’ve still got a nest
a pile of pillows and blankets that in no way
resembles a blanket fort
and look
I’ve got a hoard of books and movies
that are definitely as valuable as any mound of gold
and look
I’ve still got wings
a mind alight in flight and
okay
alright
so I don’t really have wings
but still
I swear it’s true
I’m totally a dragon

I want to dress up as a ghost
and haunt someplace full of fog and eerie silence
I want my mouth to be all sharp teeth and terrifying
I want to hear your pulse jump
when I appear out of the mist
I want you to shiver at my grey skin
too scared to scream or run away
let me be your horror story darling
I’ll be the best one yet

the older I get
the further the glamour fades
the less human I become
this old magic isn’t holding up well
to the rampage of technology and time
the digital world a comfortable mask
while these sunsets and moonrises
tick away at mortal life
I think they’re starting to notice how I don’t age
this body refusing to wrinkle and ripen
into something less adolescent
I probably have just a few more years
before these humans realize
what they’ve had hidden in their midst
since 1987

when you offered me your throat
laid out your body like a banquet in my bedroom
I should’ve sank my teeth into your flesh
taken your unthinking sacrifice
before sunrise made you remember yourself
I have so much left to say to you
but the light
the light made me leave
not your light though
because your light was pure moonbeam and hellfire
I wish my mouth knew your skin
fragile pulse against kiss-bruised lips
or that my tongue knew your taste
rather than just the taste of your name
humans are dangerous addictions
it may take an eternity to forget your voice
and the ache you left behind
when you offered me
a taste

imagine a girl who spends most of her life moving
traveling from one place to another
never settling down
as she leaves a place
the people left behind forget her name
her face
because she’s forgettable
I guess
the way a stranger on the bus is forgotten
when they get off at the next stop
it’s always been this way for her
like she drags every memory from her friends
and wrings out whatever might
bring their minds wondering back toward her
it’s like being forgotten is her superpower
or maybe it’s her curse
either way
it gets lonely when you’re the only person
who remembers

we’ve always had a strange relationship
in the way you’ve witnessed my lowest lows
hidden in the cold
winter has been my favorite season
but it’s never been particularly kind to me
you tweaked my nose with your frosty fingertips
while my world fell apart
it’s funny
that December is often when my world
chooses to fall apart
but still
I miss you after spring arrives
my bruised and battered heart more obvious
after the frost melts away
like a true winter’s child
I count the months until you come back to me
your first kiss always burns my lungs
but makes me laugh
giddy at your return and whatever it brings
winter is the season of dead things
of letting things go
I’m not sure how I’d handle it without you
even if you’re touch only ever hurts me

my father accidentally thrust me into being
with a poorly planned affair
though to be fair
all affairs tend to be short on planning
regardless
I lucked out
the centuries mellowing Hera’s ire
at another bastard child
another nail in the coffin of Her marriage
to that faithless fool
but I digress
my father was a wanderer
walked the world the way a bored teenager
trolls the neighborhood for something to do
a bored god is a dangerous god
and a bored man has wandering eyes and hands
at least the only damage was me
a little mistake planted in my mother’s womb
no one wants to tend a garden
of ill-sewn seeds and weeds
so needless to say he took no interest in me
but I flourished despite that
became this demigoddess of the dandelion
this mobile muse
carrying inspiration to places with
the tiniest hint of room to grow

when I tell you I’m a child of Nyx
I’m saying that the Night birthed me into being
She wove me out of the void into a blessed shadow
I’m no sparkling star
no bright and burning ball of fire
instead
I’m the breathless space between celestial bodies
the overlooked crowd of hidden ones
the shapeless darkness that cradles
all this delicate life you have
know it to be fact
the children of the Night came into being
long before there were bodies to inhabit
we will still be here
long after the void swallows all the bodies back
into nothingness again