Gothica

I bought this house in 1958
straight outa the army
with a VA loan

It's all vintage
from the linoleum
the single pane windows
original tar and gravel roof

You people with your
double pane windows
and fancy heating systems

Wear layers I tell ya, layers
why I can remember when...
Shhhhhh she said

As she laid her velvet gin soaked
fingers across his chapped lips
Shhhhhh she said

As she led his hollowed body
down the dark sweaty hallway
Shhhhh she said

As she held his face up to the mirror
illumined with the only working
light bulb in the house

Shhhhh she said;
The light scalded his sallow face
one tear fell from his squinty eyes
then the mirror quietly cracked in two

Betty Grable Legs

Sacha Tillier limps out of the trailer. Her neck is stuck in gear and she cant seem to remember which one, high or low. Her back aches and she knows her child sized bed will only hold up so long. In the dark of last night the sounds had scared her but when the apparitions appeared she closed her eyes and said, yes I am home. God wants me here.
She tidied up her camp stove and made some coffee, cowboy style. Drinking her first cup o joe with her leg propped up on the ancient sawed off tree was her usual morning starting point and the sameness while routine, gave her hope. Hope she will find some way to escape this place. Hope she was young enough to find another lover. She had been looking for escape for the past ten years. Every hidey hole turned up empty. No key to be found.
Making the best of it was her motto. She turned her face to the sun and ran her hand quickly down her withered leg. Dammit, she thought, I used to be known far and wide for my Betty Grable legs and now not even my confused raggedy ghosts wanted to look at them. A deep sigh seeped out from her, but as she was determined to be ever hopeful, she dreamt of better days for herself. She need only find the key and she would be free.