WAR HAMMER

Hydra-headed faces, I am scared of your 
innumerable tentacles, bad luck and gypsy blood. 
I know what I must do, a Herculean task, and 
hack the sword to kill you. Now one head lopped off,  
two grows in its place; death strengthens your resolve. 
Banish the hydra-headed bitch! 
 
Relapsing, I am cracking, bloodied by the vice of axes who 
own me. Place the mad monster's neck beneath a guillotine; 
the final head must be chopped where fierce emotion moves 
me not. Hack the Hydra, master vampire and slayer, whose 
bones bury you in an unexpected grave. In the reeking soil he'll 
die beneath a rock, memories heavy as the stone. 
 
Now frozen and faint, my face is my own, pierced by knives. 
On a cold day that carries its dead, this mouth is trapped 
in a cage of frantic butterflies, all wants and desires set free. 
Asking nothing of life, anesthetized, the still place is the black 
hearse of Lethe. Buddha smiles upon the dead bell, God's swastika 
is featureless and dull, barbed wire hands burn with great concern. 
 
A whiff of fear: is it over, have we come this far? Breathless engines 
are paralyzed by the screech of departure echoing at destination's end. 
I cannot walk too petrified to pick off the worms, pills that kill the long 
hiss of pain. Writhing and grateful but too dull to think, the aborted heads

end by one death, guiltless in my little fist, wordless and forgetful; shrunken

voices on no one's side, swallowing sickness. A counterfeit darkness has no

mind, embalmed in a photo eyeing my scars. I keep watch over this vile

creature whose shameful smile terror and disgust has stigmatized. 
 
 
 

Alexis Child hails from Toronto, Canada; horror in its purest form. She works at a Call Crisis Centre befriending demons of the mind that roam freely amongst her writings. She lives with a Calico-cat child sleuthing all that goes bump in the night. Her poetry and fiction have been featured in numerous online and print publications, including Whispers of Wickedness featuring an interview with the writer. Her first collection of poetry, 'Devil in the Clock' is now available in e-book from Purpleverse Publishing. Book in print coming soon. Visit her website: http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/alexischild/