Annabelle

An object entered the silence within an alley of dark void,
stench air flew through an old wooden window,

Fear expressed itself on the face of an old woman sat into a rocking chair,
With one finger pricked by her cushion needle,
when utter a verse of old riddle.

The moon reflected through
dusty curtains
and the gentle wind enter the silence,
Something flew from the misty air and settled.

Embedded itself upon the child's doll,
a gift of infatuation,
the plastic form of a dreadful horror,
without voice to speak, only eyes to see,

No trace of heartbeats pounding,
horrific look and strange eyes rest in the hand of a little girl,
who stands at the doorway with her lengthy hair blown in the misty wind.

A metamorphic grandma had seen.
The child utters "you are in a dream."

The slammed windows and bangs of the door,
she screamed and dropped the strange looking doll on the floor,
a prayer whispers from the old widow's lips,
with a thick dark cloud forces the sun to eclipse.

Only to light a candle stick, she spoke, "pick up the doll, my child"

Footsteps descended from the wooden floor upstairs, and still she was nowhere to be found,
the silence pattered with an heartbeat,
a leaky pipe dripped softly from the other side of the silence.

up the stairs on the wooden floor
are heavy step from tiny feets.
The turning sound of an open door,
there stand a doll with hollow creeps.

Fadrian Bartley is a poet from Kingston Jamaica, he has contributed his work to the R.F.D magazine, issue #173 and issue #175, 2018. also the Horror Zine magazine spring 2019. https://festivalforpoetry.com/2019/10/26/poetry-reading-daughter-of-the-dust-by-fadrian-bartley/

Fadrian is also a customer service representative, and front desk agent who oftentime writes in his spare time at his window during the night.

He can be reach on his Facebook page at Thepoetryhotel or ig@artexerexes

Find more by Fadrian Bartley in the Author Index.

Comment on this story in the Aphelion Forum

Return to Aphelion's Index page.