Poetry by Chris Dean

Today's October Stories kicks off with poetry by Chris Dean!

tobacco and rose

The shifting seasons

shift my soul

and the woods

seductively

whispers my name.

I tried to walk a

straight line

but ended up back

where I began

with the taste of change

addictive

on my tongue.

Thunder rumbles

through the ground

as life prepares to sleep

through Winter's coming deaths.

The thinness of my skin tingles

with the thinness of the veil

and the Dead speak

in the dark without.

I've spent my life moving

in the in-between places.

This borderland is more familiar

than my home.

From the corner of my eye

I see her moving,

smell her offerings

of tobacco and rose.

Empty eyes and bones of her smile

demand my attention.

Today, it's not the less

ons of the living

I need to learn.

funeral for one

I hear you moving

through the leaves,

breath cold as grave dust.

You tug at my attention,

but your time for now

has passed.

Go and rest, angry one,

lie down in peace, frightened one,

sleep in silence, malleable one,

the names you've called yourselves

have already been added

to the stones.

The one that remains,

heart hardened

to your desires for life,

walks in once-shared skin

and knows their worth

is more tha

n the sum of our parts.

Bio

Chris Dean is a storyteller, spoken word artist and self-proclaimed Magpie Poet who writes from the heart of Indiana where they live with their husband, dog and too many cats to mention.

Their work has been featured online, in multiple print anthologies and they are the author of two books of poetry, Tales From a Broken Girl and We're All Stories in the End, published by Storeylines Press.