Invidious

The Harpy of the Moon

walks her curse into the sea

knowing death has no memories.

Jealous of lover’s cradled

in night’s palm, she hunts

the scented blush of ecstasy

for flames to drown in brine.

Wooed by the buoyancy

to rise and never fall

passion walks on water…

oblivious to the Harpy’s

malicious riptide.

©Susie Clevenger 2020

Friday 55

Izred's Necklace

Izred wears every prayer cremated in a liar’s lung around her neck in the stunning pretense gold can buy the ear of a goddess. A daughter born on the dark side of the moon, first born of the goddess Erebeth, she fed from the breast of shadows until she was old enough to eat the black tar of dying stars. Feral child of neglect she learned the value of hiding opinions behind teeth and eye until revelation held the fiercest sting.

Selfish weighs more

than coins hoarded

in a wallet.

Praying with an empty mind

won’t grow wisdom

in the heart of ego.

If you pay a goddess for attention,

her boredom may

establish your worth.

 ©Susie Clevenger 2019

Weekly Scribblings #2: Myth-Placed

Restraint

You stalk the wild in me,

hidden claws beneath my tongue

where words lie sharpened

to protect solitude when intrusive

camps at every door.

I catch glimpses of you in the mirror

when I search flaws to see which

brush can paint me out of questions.

Fire and moon

camp at the door of patience

waiting to see how many pins

my skin can hold

before I break.

 ©Susie Clevenger 2019

The Sunday Muse #90

Say It Again Without Meaning

In the moonless cage of gravity

the rusted wings of the canary

circle platitude’s corpse singing,

“Solitude doesn’t require a handmaid.”

Alone and lonely aren’t identical twins

nurtured at the breast of your perceptions.

Apparitions of every dishonest emotion

root on your tongue growing poison

from the rotted useless you feed them.

©Susie Clevenger 2020

Inspired by a Skylover wordlist