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published poetry

select works

poetry

"Flesh, Blood, and Bones"

 appeared with a critique courtesy of Mr. Anthony Servante on Servante of Darkness: Horror, SF, and Noir 
on January 28th, 2013 alongside pieces from Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Quiñonez, and more. 


Read the poem and critique here. 

dentist

 
just relax
            as I drill into you,
                        crushing the brittle shell
                                    of your false existence;
                                                exposing the raw nerves
                                                            of your primal fears.
                                                                        and don’t scream
                                                            as I scrape away
                                                your pseudo veneer
--
                                    I know
                        what’s underneath.
I’ve waited so long
            to suffocate you,
                        to bring tears
                                    to your eyes,
                                                make you ache
--
                                                            because I know you,
                                                                        and because I know how.




"dentist" Copyright © 2014  by Shawna L. Bernard, written as Sydney Leigh

Sycophant Soliloquy


I, libertine,
dream of you.

Look no further for absolution.
I will hand it to you here,
in an archipelago
of sinister machinations.

In the light,
one might almost mistake you for human.

But shadows betray;
darkness defiles.
A kaleidoscope of candor
reveals subterranean filth
impervious to all efforts to forgive
its pestilent reach
but my own.

You will be purified.

 I will strip the sin from your bones.
Peel caustic flesh back to expose the rot.
Drink plagued blood from your veins.

I           will     be        your    God.

Open wide, child.
Prepare to receive my host,
a sharp edged instrument of mercy.

And brace yourself
for the pain.



"Sycophant Soliloquy" Copyright © 2014  by Shawna L. Bernard, written as Sydney Leigh

Paramour, Mephitic


It came inside you,
loosed like a cannon,
splitting you at the seams.

A bitter fusion,
this blood and hate.
Demons fuck like animals.

Sapphire bruises,
flesh ripped wide,
led to slaughter with a septic smile.

What king, from what land,
armed his men
with a cock for a weapon?

Cannibal soldier
devouring your purity,
hungry for more.

Submit to the swine.
The white flag, consent;
stained with the fluids of defeat.

On hands and knees,
you writhe in the dirt
of an Armageddon soul.

The carnage of this war sempiternal,
eviscerated bowels of youth
impaled on a stick like meat.

A legion rises inside,
rife with the scent
of the beast.



"Paramour, Mephitic" Copyright © 2014  by Shawna L. Bernard, written as Sydney Leigh
Blind Date


Hush, now. You won’t feel a thing.
Can I interest you in a drink?
Tip it back, expose the throat
I will slit like silk.
It’s strange,
meeting like this;
for the first
and last
time.





"Blind Date" Copyright © 2014  by Shawna L. Bernard, written as Sydney Leigh
Nightwing


Haunting thoughts deliver screams of silence through the soul
as nightwing creatures of the mind retreat to darkened holes.
Begging for repentance and to live in fear of sin,
the battling vengeance calls to hidden voices deep within.


The soundgardens of anguish strike a tune of empty lyre
upon the hour when images of heathens do appear.
Vague regions of reality await beyond the pale,
but in the lurking storm above, a horror does prevail…





"Nightwing" Copyright © 2014  by Shawna L. Bernard, written as Sydney Leigh
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