I see her sitting at a pit stop in Kentucky. Her boots up, her wild whiskey grin. Laughing at the lot of us still trapped in this melancholy hell.

“I reckon you all have chills when I step up on you.”

Let me sink here in your tatted skin. “I’m not earthbound, anymore.”

Laughing at our bloodshot lives and wasted plans.

“I’m still here, somehow.”

Let my heart bleed out onto the kitchen floor

remembering her will

the pain of it.

”can you hear me?”

Her hopeless light of marigold

Her stubborn fight against the dying of the light.

”I’m with you, can you see me?”

Her death blowing a hole

straight through the universe

and shattering the moon.

”I love you all, I’m still here.”

We are stolen by her

memory

Our beloved

Shells

Her ghost forever

lives within those

of us who felt the

certain and sudden

drop

from

heaven

as her spirit

hit the sky

Rest now.

Shelley “Shells” Gilreath

May 18th 1981 - April 18th 2025

Flakes of creation pranced Infinite bound

Cosmic darkness, clashing gray puffed clouds and

Rustic fields fortuned by dandelion wisps

Wailing against ocean deep canvas clouds

Simulations clamored red eyes of stardust

Novae laughter locked light kevlar hatred,

Platelets scurried to sparred rifts, en garde new

Hell ten year holocaust, sauna mist drowns

Arctic iced whiskey cup; talk and talk 00-4

Burn every nuclear home- just as you did

Before. Aims wished sanctuary ashes

Away, Cowells at bay staring into

Fiery magma fins, sweet tangerine walls

Lashing tepid shed roof, wooden spine squeals

Sundered focal synapse: revolution

Revved as bumbling coupe engine, medals granted

Devil’s tongue spiraling in ears of young agents,

Hard fought! Clouded Cowells picked up Book of Dreams

Ripped page of Love, evolving revolver

Squandered, point, aim, shoo. Entity Aims access

To Oceanside granted. Prepare for War.

00-4 said in a gravelly commanding voice,

Legion gravitas dissipating, next

Awaits. Cowells gait slow and militant.

Neon mist crisp emerald blades, residue like

Faint oasis dreams, crystalline waterfalls

Splash weary leafy seams, above seas collapse;

Foggy fingers clasp to new day's sanguine glove.

Crisp autumn air reveals trails of clotted char

Streaks, livid vinyl crackles popped coffin den,

Devils suited, cloaked, petrified by plasma

Cotton candy haze- Hellfires spin to HQ.

Colt clipped, one round chambered, boulevards

Freshly lit, Coupe consumes tar roads, Gaul Heights

Prowling, sirens scatter pedestrian

Wards, youth inhale rotten flesh stench, plasma

Churns, gurgling cotton candy vents, cherry

Swirls unwind tonight's chapter. Petrified

Breath batters Book of Dreams, fresh yellow pages

Glow elliptical, Eden returns to mind

Drink the witches brew, swirling raspberry

Chamber drools cold exhaust, nights cost sanity

Coupe swerves with turbo thrust, escape the plains;

Pink city bound, cruel bars claw tinted glass,

Aims inhales midnight smog, tar fuses flesh

Late teens talk tactics, plain fashion, laughs

Echo sidewalks, alleys, veins of the city

Report to HQ command- dropoff- engage…

Cowells brushes onyx curls, ladies lurk drunk;

Quick punch paces livened liver, quiver

Unleashes snake chain gun ballistics, strange

Dame lights red and blue skyline- minds eye trails…

Dips, scrolls; Doom is imminent, intimate

Encounters flower Aims tequila shots:

Call me love, late in my premonition;

Navy blue tears confide in war torn lands

I know where you lurk:

Devil's Den

New Disciples.

I claim Heaven as my Hell

Paradise supplied in layers

Digital players spike

Cherry peace.

Flee