Gothicarus: Part IV- Keralynne

Serial Poem

Here we pause to meet Keralynne Crosstree
Neither psychic nor cynic, she yet possessed
A vision into a cloaked, murky realm,
And its dark interference left her often distressed.

She felt keenly suspended between worlds.
Even in paradise, she heard the snake’s hiss.
Like Eve of old, she struggled, ungrounded.
Hovering over danger, while reaching out for bliss.

Still, she thought her fears ordinary.
Still, she succored herself with prayer.
Still, she fought the blackness within her.
Still, she knew it lived on out there.

As a child, she had been declared ‘gifted’.
So intelligent, creative, and clever,
That no one guessed what she saw in the night,
And if she had told them, well, who would have believed her?

That in wee hours, her walls reached out as hands,
Her name, whispered from an empty pillow,
Into her trembling ear, out of her dreams,
She sprang, gasping- How could anyone else ever know?

And so, she kept a small, quiet counsel.
Her secrets were hers and the Lord’s…and the gloom,
The ghouls, and the temptations that vexed her,
While the constant torment within her slowly consumed.

next chapter: Gothicarus Part V – Her Lullaby

previous chapter: Gothicarus Part III – Decisions

all chapters: Gothicarus

more by VK LYNNE

photograph by Fernando Brasil