For this week’s dVerse Quadrille, we were asked to craft a poem using exactly 44 words, and to include the word “whirl.” I leaned into my mythic-modern voice—wicked, adult, and a little neon—channeling a Wiccan brew scene with a sci-fi twist and a hint of hex.
Night Shift Hex
She brews in a neon kitchen,
nails chipped, playlist pulsing.
Vodka, venom, vape smoke—
a spell for forgetting.
She stirs in passwords,
a lover’s last text,
and one drop of blood.
The potion purrs,
then vanishes,
leaving only perfume
and a whirl.
I wanted to shift the pace from my usual dark folklore—where civic dread and mythic recursion reign—and lean into a more Wiccan sensibility. This piece marks a tonal pivot, a ritual warm-up for my next fiction project, where spellcraft meets neon and longing brews in modern cauldrons.
Thank you for visiting with me. For more Poetry or Literature related content, visit our blog at The Ritual. Copyright Mind on Fire Books.
Folklore and Flesh: A Dark Fiction Collection of Folklore and Body Horror
Step into the uncanny with Folklore and Flesh—a collection of visceral horror stories and haunting poems that blur the boundaries between myth and the body. From ancient rituals and supernatural transformations to the raw ache of grief and memory, these tales invite you to explore the shadowed places where folklore becomes flesh.
This collection binds 10 creative short stories and a dozen visceral poems.
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