HORROR Poem: Snakeskin, by Mel Rowe

The front door peels wide setting in motion its foul display
A ravenousness beast upon return from terrorising the night
Dance chandelier
unsuspend yourself from ceiling
dance in the howl
loosen your pointed crystal fragments in such interference
drop upon the creature’s skull below
oh…but a bare miss
The terrified monster arrows the eyes
I’ll fucking kill you… I’ll do it
An absent mother awakes from upstairs
The cunning cat-self alert to thrilling suspicions of something exciting
It sharpens claws against the bedframe
Joins in the sport of murderous possibilities
The monster whimpers at sight of its wife
I need you Lel,
I need you Lel,
Lel, I need you
It tightens the wet suede jacket against dripping skin
Soaked from hellish uncertainties and
a diminishing appetite to drown the neighbour in a pool

A sleeping child awakens and creeps to the ballistite
She overlooks the ordeal
Petrified by the creature orchestrating her nightmare

Daddy?
Are you okay?
but there is no daddy here; eaten whole
He fucking pushed me in the pool Lel
I took the asshole in with me
The child grips the round edges of two railings
peers through a gap with one salted eye
Daddy?
But all traces of the father-figure are gone
I kept his head under… just kept it under

With such a horrifying confession
the child withdraws to her bedroom and cloaks herself
in a snake suit
delivered by foul creatures in other sunken dreams
It slithers across the walls for a closer view of daddy remanence
encapsulated in the almost murderous
Lel, my suede jacket, he ruined my father’s fucking jacket
The cat-mother hunts a chest under the staircase
kneading the items between its paws
Retrieves a silk that it wraps around the husband’s waist
cocooning him for an unlikely redemption
to an almost drowning of a neighbour
an almost death
over a suede jacket

The poisonous child scales the roof unseen
intending to sink its teeth into the daddy imposter and draw out her real father
Crack chandelier snaps the tail

It chimes, swings and snaps
releasing an ungodly effect of surging pointed fragments
Decadent shards attack the mother’s cat eyes rendering it blind
Stab the cat claws diminishing its skill to scratch any ludicrous ego
Silly kitty…Silly kitty hisses the child
And as for the ravenous beast whilst his wife meets her end
Why, he is cradling the suede jacket and whimpering
insensible to the crystals slicing at its swollen tongue
Lel
it garbles
pointed vessels lunge at the bolding head
protrude from the skull
Le
e
l
and it is dead

The girl slithers across the stained tiles to bath in crystal blood
Removes the white silk and tosses it away
With such wickedness
she releases her jagged teeth
to bite deep into the monster’s chest
Wrapping its mouth over the heart
She shrieks I will free you daddy
The reptile withdraws splitting heart from flesh
allowing blood droplets to drip upon the suede jacket
The creature sinks into the night with the heart swallowed whole
bloated gut
towards the neighbour’s backyard

Remanence of party goers paralysed by the presence
of another wild creature

The full moon casts particular attention over the pool
as the snake slides over the edge and into the water
to be rocked in a paternal embrace
Daddy? The snake-girl whispers
revealing her face from the snake suit
You lost your heart
I fetched it back for you

The daughter regurgitates her snack
offers the heart to a shadow below the surface
She hears his true voice
Forgive me my darling
Forgive me and allow me to be your daddy again
a bright red flow with the moonlight to the beat of
lub dub lub dub lub dub
Yes daddy, but of course you can
The shadow lightens and the child adjusts its snake suit
covering weeping brown eyes and
leaving the father alone in the pool to drown wonderfully whole
in his suede jacket

The front door peels wide setting in motion the snake-like girl
who is oblivious to the foul odour of the night

without fear
barely cares
shedding snakeskin
Sleep awaits