poem: BLACK WIDOW
from our poet of the month: Mehnaz Sahibzada
Getty/mythja
"Each time I turn a page, / my skin seems to shiver. / Each time I blink, / my lashes are spider legs."
BLACK WIDOW
I keep the bedroom door
locked. The lamp
on my nightstand barely
glows. All evening long,
the rain pours haikus.
The hallway seems
a throughway for ghosts.
A book of spells
lies open on my
bedspread. I read
a thriller instead
of planning my lessons.
Nibble three cookies
in the dusty swirls of light.
Living alone, I am
prone to spectrophobia.
My heart senses the wax
and wane of each moon.
Shadows drift through
my mind like spent coins.
By 2am my heart becomes
a light switch. The footsteps
grow slighter, but never silent.
Each time I turn a page,
my skin seems to shiver.
Each time I blink,
my lashes are spider legs.
Listen to Mehnaz read Black Widow:
Mehnaz Sahibzada shares her experience of poetry with S&H:
"I aim to merge the simple with the thrilling in my poems. The ordinary is re-imagined through a gothic atmosphere and humanized by its very strangeness."
Select poems from My Gothic Romance by Mehnaz Sahibzada. Copyright © 2019 by Mehnaz Sahibzada. Reprinted with permission of Finishing Line Press.
More poems from Mehnaz Sahibzada:
