The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Anteroom Gathering
by Marge Simon

Long silent, the grandfather clock awakes
to strike a full twelve bells at midnight
On a glass topped table, five candles light
without the need for human hands, chairs
with flawless satin seats await the guests.

Dr. Mengele passes through the door
with a box of spectral chocolates,
the same he gave to Jewish twins
when their train arrived in Auschwitz,
prized subjects for his surgeries.

Ilse Koch, Red Witch of Buchenwald,
appears in fashion, with a fancy purse
of Jewish prisoners’ tattooed skins.
Himmler brings his book on the Occult
and racist jokes to share, but is ignored.

Adolph and Eva are fashionably late,
she with her two terriers, he with
his German Shepherd, Blondi,
all wagging tails and licking hands,
just like things used to be,

before the last few days,
when Blondi took the cyanide
to assure her master that it worked,
and Eva’s terriers were shot, along
with Blondi’s newborn pups.

This night, they gather to forget,
with fictive wine and phantom tea,
to joke and jest and reminisce
the histories of their wartime lives
until at dawn, the clock ticks cease.

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 on Amazon!