In Shadows, They Cry

C.S. Fuqua

 

Vague apparitions,

she explains,

assemble near the soon-to-die,

faces and features distorted,

darkness shaping, reshaping

all but the eyes which

remain constant,

pleading, accusing,

until she flees

in prayers for strength

to blind herself.

Trembling with knowledge,

she says nothing to those

around whom the darkness gathers,

nor to the darkness itself.

If the shadows clot around me,

I begged her, please tell me.

She cried softly

across the ocean that separates us.

 

Longing in this room,

I whisper to the silence,

さびしい です、*

and reach for invisible hands.

 

 

*sabishii desu:  “I am lonely.”

  

 

C.S. Fuqua lives in Alabama.  His published books include Big Daddy's Gadgets (novel), Divorced Dads: Real Stories of Facing the Challenge, Notes to My Becca: A Father's Thoughts on Welcoming His Long-Awaited Child, Music Fell on Alabama, and Deadlines, a four-novel audio series. His work has appeared in such publications as Main Channel Voices, Dark Regions, Christian Science Monitor, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Cemetery Dance, Bogg, Year’s Best Horror Stories XIX, XX and XXI, Amelia, Slipstream, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, The Writer and Honolulu Magazine.

 

 

Return