by Allister Nelson

“Come feast with the Devil / drink wine from grape’s wrath / trample the rosebush / and the primrose path.”

by Allister Nelson

“It’s not Zeus and Ganymede, / no Rape of Persephone, instead / it’s an operetta of stolen fire / of night clashes and star-flowers.”

by Allister Nelson

“Am I beautiful or am I wretched, / with poisoned brains and nightshade eyes. Are my / breasts fit for suckling changelings, will I be / the tithe to Hell? Or am I to be Midir’s bride, / a fluttering Etain caged in a box by Aengus Og.”

by Allister Nelson

“Yeshua stripped in the desert / was Caravaggio weaving light / out of shadow, lamb in sin.”

by Allister Nelson

“Bleed out slow, let old dreams flow / Like hourglass sand to depths below …”

by Allister Nelson

“Bleed out slow, let old dreams flow / Like hourglass sand to depths below …”

by Allister Nelson

“I wake up every day and want to die, / but in Hell, if you’re dead, where else / is there / to go?”

by Allister Nelson

“One must keep the fire burning, one must heat the poker. / And one is the flame-diver, dreaming / of snow.”

by Allister Nelson

“The Devil once said my soul was a black hurricane. /That every time I injured myself, I bled red gold.”

by Allister Nelson

“Little flower of Hell, where the clear creek / runs / …I go a witching down in the brine, digging / a stick through the mud.”

by Allister Nelson

“Raven rises from the bubbling concoction, / foul-winged and downy-chested with rain – / acid drips on the horizon.”

by Allister Nelson

“Washerwoman, sting with lye / Scrub away the exile, / Prince beneath, beneath the scale. / My binding is my wretchedness”

by Allister Nelson

“Gold were my days, when the long summer of my life / played out like reeds cut to form Pan’s pipe, a wild / child spread out across the meadows in quilted skirts.”

by Allister Nelson

“Mother never told me why flowers wither at frost’s first touch. / I watch my flesh crumble, I become the Bone Bride.”

by Allister Nelson

“The stars began to dance, like reflections in a pool. I gasped, watching as they mirrored the milk-white blooms. I plucked one, bringing it to my lips.”

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”