Housefire

From the womb of an ashtray
You filled my skull with smoke
We danced all night and I gave
No fright as you held me tight.

Our reflections embraced
Staring each other in the face
When I remembered I had held
A cigarette between my fingers.

You singed my flesh to embers
With endlessness of newborn ash
I knew my uncertainty when your
Laugh reverberated as we clawed
Against my windows fast.

I am shrunk, crumbled, and charred
Until I stopped squirming hard—
All the while, you grew tall and wide
Then walked outside to greet the firemen
Undetected.

T. C. Bennett was born and raised in Los Angeles. His novella, Phantom Carriage, was first released in 2004 and republished in 2005 His short fiction has appeared in 100 Doors Of Madness, The Writers Of Mystery And Imagination, and in various other anthologies and magazines. He is the Publisher and co-editor of the horror anthology Cemetery Riots, which also made the 2016 Bram Stoker Preliminary Ballot

Find more by T. C. Bennett in the Author Index.