My Wake, circa October 2024

Photo of a foggy forest
Photo by Anton Atanasov

Remain quiet behind the old graveyard gate.
The handles and locks make you think that you’re late,
Yet you’re just in time for the freshest slate—
Resurrection of a girl in the gilded crate.

Approach with caution, beware the emerald flame.
Don’t stare at the cryptids, the beast, the dame.
When the clock strikes midnight, shout out your name.
Watch the shallow grave shake from ancestral shame.

Watch it deepen and widen in quiet rage.
The priests will get butchered with a single page,
But don’t you run—wait for the gilded cage.
Observe her blood-red hair, observe that stunning mage.

A man will ask who put her to early death.
She’ll raise a single brow like it’s a cunning threat,
Then say, “Every captain I’ve ever met,”
Leaving you high and dry, stealing your mind and breath.

The mage will stand up only to fall on her knees.
Never trust your instinct to help the weak.
She’s a traitor tailored for devils and greed.
Someone who knew her said she was the Queen of Peace,

But rising tides filled her lungs with salt water,
Drowned her homes and hopes along with her own father.
As you watch her limbs stiffen up, growing harder,
You’ll question whether she’s a lion or a martyr.

The candles spin in thin air as chants come to be hectic.
Were her eyes made by gods to birth heretics?
Her frame levitates, killing your inner skeptic,
And curses bleach your soul like an antiseptic.

The first rays of sun peek through sacred trees.
Wet ground starts swallowing her bones and dreams,
Until her skin turns to dust, until the fingers freeze.
Some spit on her grave, some tremble like leaves.

The crowds disappear until only two souls remain—
A woman in green, a creature with your own name.
The lines on her face are carved from sheer pain.
Your eyes meet, and her voice spills out like champagne:

“She was forged from stone, rubies, silver, and heat.
Resurrections only haunt those who refuse to leave.
I’m yet to learn that lesson—should’ve let her become me,
Should’ve let her slash throats that claimed to be holy.

I tortured her to entertain the cruel and divine,
Until her name became the butt of a victor’s rhyme.
Here she lies, drowned in words that were never mine.
Here she dies, knowing she was buried alive.”

-Jackie

Vulture’s Song

A vulture perching on a tree branch
Photo by Denitsa Kireva

The ice dagger melted hours ago,

The ghost hands holding it slipped off my waist.

Still, blood trickles down my side when I breathe in.

Knees buckle, hips hurt, head spins in most directions.

The lines and shapes blur into gnarly visions.

No.

Not even death is safe for me here.

Is it a murder if a woman dies without someone to hear?

No, not like this.

I just have to drag these bones a little further down the road

Where other people might notice what he’d done to me.

The small pieces of glass in my lungs burn,

And when I cough, I imagine it’s wine on my sleeve.

Pulp, bubbles, and fizz.

Maybe it is.

He got me drunk on some unholy spirit,

Forced twisted romance plots in my mind where he was the god,

And I was a love interest looking for a savior.

My feet got burned at the stake while on my best behavior.

There’s an arrow where my heart should be.

I must’ve forgotten to pull it out,

And, I’m not going to lie, the poison really helps to keep going,

Rowing my soul down a river that might never end.

Miles pass by, days become weeks,

I start wondering—how much blood could there be?

Seems like even my body survives just to spite him.

He cried crocodile tears when I left,

Then put a boot on my neck and wished me good luck.

I can feel his thoughts taunting me like a hyena,

Following me in an old truck,

Haunting my skull like it’s an abandoned arena.

Little did he know I’ve outrun worse.

“A vulture can heal her wing, a vulture can fly again.”

It hurts.

Still hurts.

Even when I step on the road.

When a car picks me up.

When the nurse tells me to take a breath.

“A vulture can wait him out.”

But it stings.

Bones mend slowly, you know.

Sorrow rises, then it falls like snow.

Sun rises, then it sinks like a ship.

And my wing moves.

My wings work.

Talons are sharper than ever.

He taught me how to stay quiet and still.

Blood leaves his cheeks when he spots me on his windowsill.

-Jackie