Aphelion Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025
 
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The Essence of Me

by Lea Ann Douglas


Just an inch away,
writhing toward me,
Is my ancestry,
so near,
tuckled up to my cells and sinews.

Far off in some misty before now,
Dark Mother of me,
O come feed your theotrope childer.
Too far removed from the wellspring,
The ancestral font,
To stalk the night on my own.

But close enough to hunger...

Drawing my blood like the moon rules the tides,
I feel the undertow of craving.


© 2006 Lea Ann Douglas

Lea Ann Douglas is a professor of English and philosophy, living in Virginia. Her plays have been seen in Los Angles, Virginia, Arizona and London. Her short stories have appeared in Aphelion, Dream Passage, Asgard, and Cruinnaiu. She is currently editor for the fantasy fiction magazine Cruinnaiu and co-editor of an anthology of erotic horror fiction and poetry.

Find more by Lea Ann Douglas in the Author Index.

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