The Ladies of Horror

Cinder Gypsies Dancing
by Marge Simon

In his eyes a universe, brown embers slumbering among the flames. He confounds me, so few wonders in this world. There he sits, hand on chin, staring into the grate.

How many times have I asked his thoughts on nights like this? How many times has he evaded my questions?

There is a covenant
among the gypsies, evasive
as flickering shadows,
they speak in tongues –

He mumbles things like this while his mind is transfixed with the flames. The glow of our winter hearth has become his escape since he was laid off. I suppose I should be grateful that he hasn’t joined his mates in the tavern. They’ve no more to squander on the spirits than do we, but still they go. And still they fight, so I’m told.

“Who are you talking to?” I say, setting the tea tray down. I fill his cup, add a drop of cream.

Bracelets jangle
shatter the perfect silence
eyes like pewter,
dance on, my beauties

“Who is she this time?”, I ask. My fingers trace the curved arms of my grandfather’s favorite chair. It is my chair now. It is the only thing I own that I won’t surrender in this marriage.

Lovely Esmeralda,
lithe daughter of night and moon,
a fallen virgin …

“You wouldn’t understand,” he says.

She comes nude to my bed
and with warm hair and mouth
folds in on me …

Tonight I see his gypsy, her hair in whorls of gold and violet. I watch until she vanishes in the smoke. When he dozes off, I adjust his shawl before I go with taper to an empty bed where once we lay together. I know he’s resting peacefully, all his pretty fancies dancing in the flames.

A fireplace to be cleared tomorrow. Would that I could have my own fantasies, if only I’d given my virtue to that soldier lad I’d loved so long ago.

Fiction © Copyright Marge Simon
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Marge Simon:

Small Spirits

Small Spirits is another of the poems-for-art duets by Bram Stoker® Award winning poet Marge Simon and artist Sandy DeLuca. These unusual poems involve dolls of many sorts, including legends from countries all over the world. You will find small spirits of the wicked, the damned and the beloved. Be prepared for the mystical, magical and often misanthropic dolls in this colorful collection.

Available 2017!

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