The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
Parade of the Raven Prince
by Angela Yuriko Smith
He stands at the head
of a carnivalistic parade…
hungry and bizarre with
hollowed, craven eyes.
His sharp beak pierces
the dark side of my heart.
His ebon feathers tickle
my fancy and I blush.
His misshapen troupe
watches from behind
licking cracked lips
waiting for reactions…
will I run or stay?
I stay, hypnotized
by his compelling dark
gaze laden with promises—
annihilation for adoration
seems a good exchange
in the woods at night
when face to face with
the Raven Prince and
his possessive posse.
His stance says enough.
I am already owned. He
is the scavenger of souls…
the claimer of carcasses.
Boneless, helpless
I drop to the leaves
adding my humanity
to the detritus there….
cast it off like a girl’s
outgrown, faded frock
and open my chest
inviting him to dip his
razor beak into my soul
and drain me to a husk.
Somewhere, a witch’s tears
mar her silver scry as she
witnesses wilted and sad
girlhood fall forgotten to
the forest floor and her
child prisoner rise to join
a different twisted family.
I see her eyes in the mist
watching me from shadows
cast from my new master.
With no love lost I wave
soft and secret for her
that watches, blinded
as her monkey joins
another circus.
Fiction © Copyright Angela Yuriko Smith
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
More from Angela Yuriko Smith:
The Bitter Suites
Book a stay at the Bitter Suites, a hotel that specializes in renewable death experiences. Whether you schedule your demise as therapy, to bond with a loved one or for pure recreation, your death is sure to give you a new lease on life. Renewable death is always beneficial… at least to someone.
Spreading the Writer's Word 
Your poem reads like a very Dark Carnival! Enjoyed the part about the crow, dipping its beak into her soul! Bewildered and confused, I ran screaming into the night!