by Allister Nelson

“Ophelia, Ophelia. / The men are not worth dying / For naught, to rot / Drift to the sea.”

by Allister Nelson

“When love is death and death is only / absolution, choose to fight, not sing”

by Allister Nelson

“the memory foams like a dream…”

by Allister Nelson

“Claws on my back, fangs at my throat. / Musk mixed with cologne and the ashes / of a pricey cigar. Rumination, ruin, these / plots of fallen angels with loss in between.”

by Allister Nelson

“There’s a gateway to heaven, a stairway to hell / my seal on your thigh to guide you well”

by Allister Nelson

“Grace! Asmodeus delights, in his girls and boys, in his den of inequity and sin, with wormwood drinks and time to think of red delicious wounds.”

by Allister Nelson

“twist and turn at a soc hop like it’s your / grandparent’s malt shop dream, sweet teeth, in me are leaves of / hauntings, and to fall from a sycamore and swing from an oak / is but the path of angels lit on fire with the coming Thanksgiving…”

by Allister Nelson

“We played charades under the moonlight, / letting the small hours pass.”

by Allister Nelson

“You were always the blackened disciple, / so quick to pass over the lambs. / You sought lions and bled them dry, / ripped aorta from tiger-flesh.”

by Allister Nelson

“The gasoline of the night bleeds gold velvet of stars / across the clotted scabs of Nyx’s bower, and from / the breast of night, Heylel ben Shachar, Son of Dawn, rises.”

by Allister Nelson

“Swords rust with blood, but the sheath renews / my girl is a knight of twelve blades, red blue.”

by Allister Nelson

“the great god apollo is dead, florid / blood like smattered roses on the grecian / asphalt, where once delos was flocked / full-circle by kingly swans…”

by Allister Nelson

“They said I should have loved a crane wife, her bleeding / out in snow, onto ivory ice, I would give her my cloak and / she would be the female Christ…”

by Allister Nelson

“…throw the wolves your prayers, and perhaps / I will grant you mercy.”

by Allister Nelson

“Did you get everything you wanted, Briar Rose? Two / suckling babes at your breast, a blind prince who / found his sight again in your roses…”

by Allister Nelson

“I held a serpent in my hands. White foil scales that reflected the stars. He had wings and a crown, albino peacock feathers and gilt gold, and there were chains at my feet.”

by Allister Nelson

“Mess smiles with burning teeth and a mouthful of violent violets. ‘Father will not like that, which means I think it’s a wonderful plan.’”

by Allister Nelson

“I sampled his tissue on dishes / Performed counts on cells hidden within…”

by Allister Nelson

“The harvest came late this year, tilling / bones in soil like spare ribs from a dragon.”

by Allister Nelson

“Olympians are just, the women they / desire are pure, they don’t fuck in dirt…”