Apply cream to your skin
Erase those wrinkles
Wear skirts and dresses
Smile and speak softly
Tend the children
Do not step into the garden of bones
Or call up to the house standing on chicken legs
Or make yourself comfortable at its hearth
Whatever you do
Do not talk to the crone
As she prepares another skull
For her gate post
J.S. Douglas is a horror author and poet living in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, daughter, dog, and a growing collection of plants. Her work most often addresses the topics she knows best: existential dread, monsters, trauma, and the horrors of existence.
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