“The Unfamiliar Tingling of Unbearable Longing” © Bill Wolak

 

netherworld

hell does not know yet still remains mocking
with flutters of ebony raven wings
and her wanton smiles like scorpion stings
heedless of her torn black fish-net stockings
that makes a promise without her talking
while out in the darkness the night birds sing
of the sweet nepenthe that her love brings
merely eternity spent sleepwalking
away from memories that cling like dew
upon some pallid and forgotten bones
of something lost somewhere that you once knew
that like your life was simply yours on loan
along with the interest that you withdrew
finally down to words on a grave stone

 

Mark A. Fisher is a writer, poet, and playwright living in Tehachapi, CA. His poetry has appeared in: Reliquiae, Silver Blade, Spire Light, and many other places. His poem “there are fossils” (originally published in Silver Blade) came in second in the 2020 Dwarf Stars Speculative Poetry Competition.

Bill Wolak is a poet, collage artist, and photographer who has just published his eighteenth book of poetry entitled All the Wind’s Unfinished Kisses with Ekstasis Editions. His collages and photographs have appeared recently in the 2020 International Festival of Erotic Arts (Chile), the 2020 Seattle Erotic Art Festival, the 2020 Dirty Show in Detroit, the 2021 Rochester Erotic Arts Festival, the 2018 Montreal Erotic Art Festival, and Naked in New Hope 2018. He was a featured artist in Best of Erotic Art (London, 2022).