Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Sheikha A. @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Layla
by Sheikha A.

to giving Venus a mercy of jasmines

‘The jasmines bloomed (a mercy) and withered’

– Rizwan Saleem

The scripture on her hand is blood-ink –

emboss-pattern of rivulet-veins. Dragon-

star hovering like a paper mountain;

the peak of a hummingbird’s perch

on her shield of solitude. Sea horses

have flown to fairies of the winds –

all beings with wings migrating to land;

she awaits her messengers, their stems

sleek. Her body is a ground of youth,

fertile like salt in the sea – haloclines

of progeny – frozen in age. She grows

nettles on fungal barks; hangs thorns

like slender ivy on curves of a dense night.

She has killed many moons to get this far;

their debris-glimmer attracting creatures

from the other world she wants to reach.

There was one: hide taut ripples,

his guile debilitated to her allure;

she tied a noose of spells around his neck,

called them heal-stones and set him free.

Dragon-star has risen, pointing light

to his land. It hasn’t taken long – turn

of one century – for him to find his way;

her stones gleaming from under his skin –

spell lodged. He will be carrier of light

and wings; hide taut ripples of virility.

He will be moon to her endless night –

what she may kill – what she won’t do –

the hummingbird is perched. Sleek

stems emanate soporific scents;

she is tired of watering illusions –

her trees growing thick and heavy.

Perhaps, this moon will be eternal.

Fairies watch from behind her mercy.

More from author Sheikha A.:

Nyctophiliac Confessions:
Poems by Sheikha A. and Suvojit Banerjee

“The night is cold enough to inspire poetry,” says Sheikha A. in her poem, “Reading My Bones.” This is the basis of Nyctophiliac Confessions – poems that are introspective and luminal, poems that require a certain amount of silence and space to be fully formed and appreciated. Reading these poems, I imagined that they were the kind of poems that assert themselves unbidden during a bout of insomnia. (A nyctophiliac being someone who loves the night or loves darkness).

Nyctophiliac Confessions is the 17th installment of Praxis’ chapbook series and contains twenty-six poems written by two poets, Sheikha A. and Suvojit Banerjee, interspersed with abstract paintings by Robert Rhodes.

Available Here!

3 Responses to Ladies of Horror Flash Project – #Horror #author Sheikha A. @Darc_Nina #LoH #fiction

Marge Simon says:

December 1, 2022 at 10:02 am

Wordmistress, Sheika’s lines are such a joy to read aloud: “the hummingbird is perched. Sleek stems emanate soporific scents;”

ufaesthetic says:

December 1, 2022 at 12:01 pm

I love the imagery in this. It’s haunting but beautiful.

alexgrehyauthor says:

December 2, 2022 at 12:57 pm

Such beautiful and fluid imagery – you have such a gift