Macabre Magazine

I admit it’s oddthat I can crawl across your faceand you don’t winceI even flutter to the tipof your lipnibble where you used to nibbleflick a redundant disease or two downthe gaping hole of your mouthI circumnavigate your wristin honor of the generations of usyou swatted into bug oblivionto thinkthis is the palmthat once reeked…

there are footsteps in the attic.unopened far before we came,no one has ever been inside.we were told to never openclaustrophobic hallway latches.young children had no reason to.at night i would listen for them.my mother said it was the petsscurrying in other parts of our old home,but they were unmistakableheavy footfalls on unfinished wood floors,creaking household…

After Judy Chicago Your hands dovetail around my waist, seek to pull me closer as my back arches away. Come on darlin, you croon, the whiskey on your breath igniting the air between us. Let me take you home, take you to bed, you look like a whole lotta trouble. It isn’t enough to just…

Apply cream to your skinErase those wrinkles Wear skirts and dressesSmile and speak softlyTend the childrenDo not step into the garden of bonesOr call up to the house standing on chicken legsOr make yourself comfortable at its hearthWhatever you doDo not talk to the croneAs she prepares another skullFor her gate post J.S. Douglas is…

The first alteration was almost invisible.In a photograph from 1998, my father’s wristwatch disappeared.Weeks passed before anyone noticed. Then a wedding photograph lost a guest. A precise absence remained: a space in the arrangement, a disturbance in the light, as though reality had forgotten to finish composing itself.The revisions accelerated.A childhood photograph removed the swing…