The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Angel Wings 
by Alex Grehy

The Angels came to our shores

offering salvation, singing of love

and of blessed ascension.

.

Their voices chocolate smooth, their

skin all strawberries and cream,

fair, delicious, beguiling.

.

They walked back into the sea, dissolving

into the azure waves, leaving only feathers, 

floating, and their song on the wind.

.

Our women, young and old, enthralled, 

grasped the feathers in ecstasy, watching the 

offing for the return of their white-winged saviours.

.

We begged them to return to the land,

as the salt water stripped their skin

of any beauty that once shone there.

.

Creatures of sky and ocean stole their flesh

until all that remained were skeletons 

surfing towards the sunset. 

.

We were left to be grateful that our girls were

deaf to the Angels’ song, too young to be stirred

by their passionate invitation.

.

Then they grew up. We remember that moment

when they ran to the sea, faces alight with joy, 

grasping at the feathers waiting there for them.

.

They ride the waves and smile at the ruination of 

their mothers, whose bare skulls grin, as all skulls will,

whether in joy or lust or anticipation.

.

They float on angel feathers for eternity, torturing 

us with their desecrated bodies, while we wither, 

alone and forever childless.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Alex Grehy:

Last Species Standing

Alex Grehy (she/her) enjoys writing quirky, thought-provoking horror and is a regular contributor to The Sirens Call and Ladies of Horror Flash Project. Her fiction and essays on being a lady of horror have featured in a range of publications, including Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora. Alex’s first poetry collection, Last Species Standing, which explores mankind’s relationship with nature and technology, is available on Amazon.

Available on Amazon!