For Ruthie

“B’ware the gargoyle
guarding the gate!”
our grandmother always said.
We snickered, we giggled, we
shook our heads, until
our baby sister got dead.

O’er the grounds
she’d ran, chasing
her bouncy ball,
and fools that we were,
we simply ignored
her distressed ‘n horrified call.
That gargoyle
snatched her as darkness fell,
left nothing but her tiny, gnawed bones.
“B’ware the gargoyle
nearest the gate
and never go near it alone!”

 

Currently in her second-term as Poet Laureate of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Patricia Gomes is the former editor of Adagio Verse Quarterly, and has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. A 2018 and 2008 Pushcart Prize nominee, Gomes is the author of four chapbooks. Ms. Gomes recent publications include Oddball Magazine, Star*Line, Muddy River Review, Rituals and Poets of New England published by Underground Writers Press. Ms. Gomes is the co-founder of the GNB Writers Block as well a member of the SciFi Poetry Association, New England Horror Writers, and Massachusetts Poetry Society.