Cantankerous ferryman rows hard

This hollowed jaw ark

Limbs heaving & weary exhale

Fogs my eye’s lens

Mr. Oculist’s ravens spiral overhead

A wooden St. Dymphna masthead

Completing a pilgrim’s seven mad circles

They caw and throw pebbles at my idols

Pebbles collected from a father’s grave

Idols residing in the mud of my eye

Flustered, I wake to see

The silhouette of a gallant God

The fallen divine Marquis

& A horse’s hoof

Shoved down my throat, maybe

A cacophony of moaning

Grunting, bellowing, neighing and howling

The man walks with an intimidating gait

While Cygnets whirl dervish like

To the melody of my Pan’s flute

I awoke further and felt

Fish hooks, jammed in my ribs

My entire frame, anchored to a wailing eclipse

He hails with all the fervour of Dom Frollo’s passion

Glaring eyes, unraveling buds of innocence

Scrying into a poet’s blasphemous verse

Unlike you, the devil is true to his word

His kisses steal, Artemisia’s green-eyed bohemian daughters

Born where two rivers meet

Say that a man with a 13 inch sceptre

And holy water sweat

May not be a phantom?

The devil is a gypsy saint with a rosary

Or the man, spurting tar black lust

Into the womb of a Parisian high priestess whore

Enshrouded in a cloak of mystery

It’s just you, just me.

…

Mashaal Sajid is a 19 year old, previously unpublished poet from Pakistan, a student on a break from formal education. She is working on developing her writing style, finding her voice and experimenting with different genres of poetry. She is currently interested in the poetical works of the Surrealists, the Beat Poets and others including Sylvia Plath, Arthur Rimbaud and Walt Whitman.