Aphelion Issue 293, Volume 28
September 2023
 
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The Cracked Bell

by Alexis Child


In grey curse I grieve these
empty hands
I am filled with such great death
I understand nothing
I close like flowers
towards evening
Abandoned like fallen rain
Stars that fall to their knees
The cracked bell chimes

In deserted town
I praise monstrous and deadly things
In star and storm
My nature is discord
Darkness separates me from all men
Transformed into cruel wind
I am entangled in a stricken moment
of my fall
The dead chapel builds scars from stones
As one who never slept again

I am stamped into dust
In this night's dead eyes
My feet remain nowhere
With no steps leading to the church
of great suffering
The bells die for me
in wind of my prayers
Invoking God in vain
No night for me


© 2018 Alexis Child. All rites reserved until the worms crawl in…

Alexis Child hails from Toronto, where horror in its purest form is a calculated crime against both the aspirations of the soul and affections of the heart. She worked at a Call Crisis Centre, befriending demons of the mind that roam freely amongst her writings, once lived with a Calico-cat child sleuthing all that went bump in the night, and is haunted by the memory of her cat.

Her fiction has been featured in Schlock Magazine, The Official Fields of the Nephilim Site, SinisterCity, and U.K.’s Dark of Night Magazine.

Her poetry has been featured in numerous online and print publications, including Aphelion, Black Petals, Blood Moon Rising Magazine, The Horror Zine and elsewhere. 

Her first collection of poetry, Devil in the Clock, a dark and sinister slice of macabre horror, gothic, surreal & supernatural poetry is now available on Amazon.

Visit her website: http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/alexischild/

Find more by Alexis Child in the Author Index.

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