“Welcome Home” © John Engstrom

 

Wildling

Furrowing deeply dark,
desperate to unearth lost childhood
as a buried lantern
smudged out by warlock hands
enclosing spiritual power
within cursing, closing clutches
like locked Egyptian tombs.

I weep and wallow,
longing for brethren:
siblings to cherish,
playing in highland forests
before crows cawed, foretelling cruelty
with unmoving, splintered beaks
marking deaths with onyx feather-tips
as invisible warrants
floating on gathering tidal winds.

Wandering for centuries,
hexing, maiming, purging human life,
my tears burn,
scolding heathen cheeks
as devilish stamps of flame
set aglow beneath my wildling skin,
tarnished as bruised brass,
marred by torturous taints of time.

Yearning for lost purity,
my spent faery charm
beckons me still
where my childlike face
dupes all like a fallen angel,
brandishing witchy pentagons
as new birthmarks
while named victims
tumble from clifftop edges,
lost to witchcraft.

I dissolve humanity
as melting icecaps,
depleting to watery forgetfulness
in my ruinous, wildling hands;
my heathen feet splash in mortal puddles,
blurring lines of lost identity
as I bend as a bough
to the will of sorcery,
bowing in allegiance
like a much-loved servant.
I am the wildest nightmare –
a twisted thorn
amongst floral blooms

 

Emma Wells is a mother and English teacher. She has poetry published with various literary journals and magazines. She enjoys writing flash fiction and short stories also. Her debut novel, Shelley’s Sisterhood, is due to be published in 2022.

John Engstrom is a Boston-based artist-author-poet. A retired journalist-museum worker, he serves as Arts critic for the Fenway News. His collages and poems appear on Facebook and Divergents Magazine.