Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Flash Fiction by Alan Catlin


  She
 
Her motto was: "The other side of life."
In the eyes of a smiling death head tattoo; matching yellow butterflies.
Lying on the love seat, alone, caressing a wooden crucifix, she watches Kiss of a Vampire.
Reading Keats, she escapes The Chase of The Urn, becomes caught in Le Belle Dame Sans Merci.
In the night, parted ceiling tiles revealing worlds trapped inside.
Watermarks bleed through waxed papers when exposed to the burning light.
Cracked mirrors reveal nothing, shadows hide the emptiness, the soul.
She wakes in the morning wrapped in torn bed sheets whisper­ing of The Mummies Curse.
Broken stakes mark the receding staircase to the sun.
Steam escaping from frozen vent pipes fogs the textured bathroom glass, rasping the air.
Her skin slides from her bones like wax work.
A stopped pocket watch held in a flat palm, bent hands leaking time.
Kissing the lips of a Fata Morgana, sipping the breath of forgetfulness.
She comes in colors like a rainbow, etched in acid, strung out on radio waves.
Sitting  in darkness, watching candles light implode, tiny worlds, declining orbits around a flickering sun.
Crystallized light reflects in the broken prisms of her eyes.
Sipping red wine from the death head, stains leaking from the eye sockets like butterflies escaping.


In the palm, the lifeline extends, the future a thin fila­ment of sealing wax.
Her jagged teeth cuts lines of flesh on glass.
Dust devils touch the wings of yellow butterflies stretched taut as flexed muscles.
Her lips extend, a lamia kiss, a taste of bella donna, sweet as blood in the mouth of a dead poet.
Tiny diamond tongue studs are for traction touching skin.
Smoke hardens like wax skin on bones of flickering light.
A hot shower of quicksilver leaves puddles of pointillist light, carved images in the shape of a cross.
Standing silhouetted against an empty window, her body is a transparency veined by an absence of light.
Negative light at the center of light reveals yellow butter­flies poised for flight.
She whispers in the ear of the hourglass sifting time in­stead of sand.
Behind the silent television glass, the voices of dead poets crack against the unyielding surface.
All attempts at flying met with a sky like ice.
Glowing death heads impaled on poles like street lights illuminate electric butterflies.        Bodiless, she encounters sleep in the waxed eyes of butter­flies pinned to flesh.
"And this is why I sojourn here alone and palely loitering: though the Sedge  is withered from the Lake and no bird sing."
The moon is a field of death heads lit by butterflies.
The red wine of dreams puddles in palms of wax.
She sings  high c notes that crack like ice.


A puff adder in a dream of shallow waters stares through her eyes, splits the surface.
Snow falls inside broken glass, bleeding white hard blue lips, leaving a residue like ash.
Silence in polished stones inhabits the dark, casting melt­ing shadows that come in flocks like crows.
Through the wind screams of a sea of forgetfulness her hair is a kinetic, flashing fire.
The hand cupping a candle's flame feels the heat it cannot expire.
Her hands pressing against cold window glass feel the rain beading inside like wax, like blood.
The lifeline of yellow butterflies extends from the palm to the mind.
Her face painted for a masked ball is a yellow butterfly, each eye centers  an unfolding wing.
Pinned to a love seat cushion a specimen  sealed by wax.
Polishing her crystal ball, the glass becomes a glowing death head, yellow eyes forecasting the future.
Light skins a waxed skull held tightly for dreaming.
Her eyes are split movie screens, one side showing The Hun­ger, the other Bride of Frankenstein; her dreams caught in be­tween.
The full moon, eclipsed sinks in the desert melting like stones, like wax.
Her fingers are bones of butterflies tracing lines like veins on her cheeks, hollowing the bones of her face.
She sees herself framed in a mirror cracked by electricity, glowing, turning black and transparent like a waxed full moon.
She is she.
 
 
Alan Catlin has published in many forms and prose genres from flash fiction to novel length works, from surreal horrific fictions to gritty realistic.  A novella based on his bar work experiences is called “From the Waters of Oblivion”. Despite his adamant insistence people still refuse to believe it is fiction.  It most defiantly is": no one could be that obnoxious and tend bas as long as the main character did.
 
 
 

14 comments:

  1. If you are looking for the process of SEO or online marketing website designing company, you are well supported by the SEO services in India.

    Best Internet Marketing Company in india
    Best Internet Marketing Company
    SEO Services India
    Best SEO Company India
    SEO Company in India
    Best SEO Company In india


    https://www.iaptris.com/
    info@iaptris.com
    support@iaptris.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Property Management Software - Find online information about best property management software, real estate management software, online property management software, simple property management software and related more."

    Property Management Software

    http://www.myirent.com/
    9194736805

    iRent Sales
    719 Scott Street
    Wichita Falls, TX 76301
    919.473.6805

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy

    Best psychologist toronto
    Best psychiatrist Etobicoke
    Couples counselling Etobicoke
    GPT therapists
    Mindfulness Etobicoke


    Call us Now-416-999-8618
    Visit our websites-http://www.counselling2wellness.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gastric band hypnosis involves, how it promotes weight loss

    Hypnotherapy
    Hypnotherapy ontario
    Clinical hypnotherapy
    Hypnotherapy cost
    Hypnotherapy training


    Call us Now-1-844-415-7124


    Visit our websites-www.hypnotherapysole.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. New Condos in Mississauga, search from hundreds of the pre-construction

    Best condos in mississauga
    Best new mississauga condos
    New condos mississauga
    Newest condos in peel region
    Peel region condos

    Visit here For Info-https://newmississaugacondos.com/

    Call us Now-(647) 919-4703

    ReplyDelete
  6. use our detailed real estate filters to find

    Luxury mls realtor
    Mls listings on golf course

    Visit here for more info- https://residential.golfshirehomes.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Orlandoprinters is one of the leading suppliers of digital printing. The state of the art printing technology we use in our production process gives our customers the best print quality. We are expertise in all kinds of gifts for corporate needs, Industries, Institutions, Banks, Hotels, Social clubs.

    banner standss
    best car wrap
    best yard signs
    blank yard signs
    business cards orlando
    car wrap design orlando
    car wraps orlando
    cheap printing orlando
    cheap t-shirts

    ReplyDelete
  8. We’re a local roastery based in the heart of the Ottawa Valley. Since 1998, we’ve been roasting and delivering fresh coffee each and every week. We have a passion for good coffee and a deep respect for the people who grow it.

    Fair trade coffee in Canada
    Weekly delivery in Canada
    Direct trade coffee in Canada
    Single origin coffees Canada
    Espresso best Canada
    Espresso best Canada
    coffee roaster Canada
    coffee roastery in Canada
    coffee shop roaster in Canada
    local coffee roasters in Canada
    roastery coffee house in Canada
    natural coffee in Canada
    coffee house in Canada
    fresh roasted coffee in Canada

    Visit here: https://www.equator.ca/
    Elgin St.
    Ottawa, ON K1P 5W1
    equatornac.cna@gmail.com
    613.563.7771

    ReplyDelete
  9. West Coast Cannabis Club, the Coachella Valley

    Cannabis tourism
    Glass blowing & Hemp
    Marijuana tour
    Recreational california
    Santa barbara
    Social lounge
    West coast cannabis
    Yosemite & California adventure

    Visit here for more info-http://greentoursla.com/

    Email-dharmendrayadav564312@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. The experts from Gates and Cameras in Dubai have outdone themselves! They have installed several Parking Gate Barriers, Industrial Garage Doors with Motion Detectors and a Wireless CCTV Surveillance Camera System, which I can even check in remotely from my phone app!

    full service for automatic shutter doors
    sliding glass door replacement
    weather proof cameras
    dvr systems
    day and night camera
    security camera
    elka german barriers in Dubai
    supply installation and repair works

    Visit here: http://gatesandcameras.ae/
    Address
    Gates & Cameras – Dubai
    Al Welaya Technical Services L.L.C.
    Office No-218 Abdulla Al Fahed, Building No 3, Plot No: 243/204 Al Quasais Industrial Area-2, Dubai
    United Arab Emirates

    Contact Details
    +971 55 8489255
    +971 50 8489255

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wholesale Yard Sign, Yard Sign in Orlando, Yard Sign in Florida. Send your order online for yard sign wholesale, cheap yard sign in Orlando, cheap yard sign in Florida and yard sign in USA

    wholesale yard signs
    yard sign usa
    cheap yard signs
    yard sign wholesale
    yard sign in orlando
    cheap yard sign in orlando
    yard sign in florida
    cheap yard sign in florida
    custom yard signs
    wholesale yard sign in usa

    ADDRESS :
    Wholesale Yard Sign
    1415 McCoy Rd,
    Orlando, Florida - 32809.
    EMAIL ID : sales@wholesaleyardsign.com
    TELEPHONE : 407-401-8787

    ReplyDelete