Very happy to report that Heartwood Literary Magazine published my short story "Saamiya" in a recent issue. "Saamiya" focuses on a depressed Muslim American teenager and her thoughts on the brave but fatal fate of Piggy from William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." I'd be delighted if you checked out my story and posted your thoughts below!

http://www.heartwoodlitmag.com/saamiya

#religion #highschool #angst #lordoftheflies #mythopoesis

Undulating snake of pressure

coiled sinew around my neck

poised to strike my center

hissing with strident warning

paralytic fear of failure

threatening future path

foreboding sense winding

entrapping me within

bizarre guttural sounds

escape from my belly

as pressure grows stronger

and fangs sink and engorge.

#SnakesAlive #SnakeEyes #Pressure

She allows

the ticks of time

to slowly murder

her.

#horror #time #shortstory #poem #poetry #death #life

A

Clenched jaw

Caged shut

With spiders

In my head,

A

Screaming soul

Shut up

With demons

In my bed.

Gemnah Maley Bray

I am ready for the show

Waiting to listen to her flow

The Lady of the Opera

And sound of the orchestra.

Listen to the songbird

What a grand moment

Hear her sing every word

Of the Opera sonnet.

Lady oh sweet goddess

Your voice rings in my ear

I love being in your presence

Her beautiful melody, I hear.

No other place I’d rather be

I could sit and watch all day

Such a dazzling beauty I see

Like a sunbeam, bright ray.

come different, the same storm again

past tense of wind

tightening the rain on a dark house

where days turn into rooms with

long windows

where long moments suffocate

an unnoticed woman

as the light echoes sharp & spineless

deep in the periphery

dust settles the way plum blossoms

fell like haiku, candling the wax

of the poem unwritten & pinned to the skin

nine weeks north, sooner the shade thickens

to hold the shadows under the leaves

lah 5.14.17©®

Lost in the dark

Tangled in silken threads

The mind screams out

To know what is real

And what is not

Suspended in disbelief

In the gossamer strands

Of reality's web

It hungers to feel

Not just the

Searing pain

Of loss

And confusion

But the cooling flow

Of nurturing love

And the stability of

Sanity

What am I

It screams

Is this all there is

I can no longer

Suffer the dark

I must know if I can

Break free of these

Enslaving threads

And enter the light

Of my own volition

Moving toward what

And who

I choose to be

#nightdwellers #beginningline #challenge #mentalhealth