CREATIVE WRITING CATHARIS: “Slither”

By Barbara Crowley
Chameleon Creative Writing Blogger

You slither in the shadows of my mind

Leaving a thick slime that stains my memories

Your foul stench never leaving my flesh

I can’t even cut it out

And I’ve tried

Tried slicing open my veins and pouring out the blood that you’ve spoiled

But it’s all spoiled

Like a thick rancid milk left out in the sun, my blood turns to lumps near my heart when I think of you…

Of you slithering on top of me

Like the serpent cursed by God to bite at Eve’s heels

instead you bite at my flesh, tearing me into pieces and destroying the ones that make me Eve

my soft, weak flesh yearns to be made of stone

if only I could find Medusa’s eyes past the unwelcome serpents slithering in my bed

but their fangs are filled with poison and their cold, dead eyes make my soft, weak flesh shiver

I don’t touch them.

But they touch me.

Slithering up my legs, down my shirt, into my mouth

Jaw held open by a silent scream

Like a dream I can never wake from

You’ve taken my voice

Lost somewhere like my keys

Perhaps deep within my throat, just beyond your reach

Perhaps deep within my throat, beside my rotting heart

Catch Barbara and the rest of the “Creative Writing Catharsis” crew when they publish every Saturday. Like to submit a piece? Send it to sanderson12@luc.edu.