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Waide Aaron Riddle

The August-September Featured Poet is

Waide Aaron Riddle

Please feel free to email Waide at: waideriddle@hotmail.com

Waide Riddle

DINNER TONIGHT…WITH FRIENDS

The fly eats mud.
The fly eats crud.
Rotted flesh... mmm... smells mighty yummy!
An open sore. What a fantasy!
The fly says "Hi!"
Garbage is good for dessert.
The fly burrows and breeds... larva... ooze... goo...
The fly and the watermelon. Sweet treat.
Almost better than dog meat.
The fly is happy.
Dinner tonight with friends.
Roaches and maggots... have such appetites! 

A HAUNTING IN ARKANSAS

Earthen colors crept over the Arkansas landscape.
Muted shadows overlapped shadows.
A melancholy painting... an overcast sky of brush strokes haunted the winters day.
Fall was dead and buried.
Blacks. Grays. Drabs. Blahs... melted like wax into the soil of the countryside.
Devils' fingers decorated each tree limb with withered leaves and burnt bark.
Slits in the overcast stung the lull in red and orange afternoon sunray.
Specters breath blew cold upon frozen lakes and ponds.
This, in return, roused the night creatures and hunger and thirst followed.
Howls in a distant hollow...
The forest went from mud brown to murky black.
The creeper crept... unseen... whisper like... throughout the wicked willows...
A snap of a twig.
A doe startled... then pranced away with her young.
Shades are drawn.
Doors are locked.
Spiders race toward web vibrations in the dark cellars.
Mold is the perfume of the night.
Again... howls in a distant hollow.

SOMETHING WICKED DWELLS

Haunted this house is. Gravely old.
Full of danger. Full of darkness.
Death... and evil.
Lurking room to room.
Slithering from stair to stair.
From attic to basement. Hidden chambers.
Lying in wait... for me.
It is my Master. Is it all in my head?
Am I insane?
Am I mad?
Listen... can't you hear him?
The voices... His demonic yells.
Something wicked dwells.
The spirits and specters... they foretell the spells of the forthcoming hell.
Beware.
They tell me of each toll of the bell. A ghost will tell the tales of this house.
Immortal.
A mere warning to me...
A mortal.
Something wicked dwells beyond these bolted doors.
Closer, it comes.
Closer.
Louder I yell-
Who's there? Good God I fear you!
I feel it. Everywhere. Surrounding me. Covering me.
But, my eyes lie to me... Nothing anywhere...
But, I know It'sthere. He's there. 
Something wicked dwells.
The evil roaming... He is roaming.
In this house, where something wicked dwells.

Waide Aaron Riddle was born in Kingsville and raised in Houston, Texas. He moved to Hollywood in 1984 and has been there since. His teachers and educators had hoped he would pursue writing as a solid career, but, he decided to go into acting. As the old saying goes, "It's not where you start, it's where you finish...". After time, Waide learned that his teachers were right; his strength was in his writings and that's what he would focus on.

Today, Mr. Riddle is the winner of seven national poetry awards. He has self- published three books, All- American Texan, The Chocolate Man: A Children's Horror Tale  and Red River Country From Short Story To Screenplay, which are all available on Amazon. Waide is also an independent filmmaker. He has written, produced and directed three short films, Two Men Kissing, Washington Park and Lost Hills, California. Each film is based on his award- winning poetry and each film was a festival hit. Most recently he put the finishing touches on his latest short, Something Wicked Dwells, and is now submitting to film fests.

Waide is very proud of the fact that twenty of his poems, including Something Wicked Dwells and A Haunting In Arkansas are archived in the UCLA Library of Special Collections. The Chocolate Man and Red River Country are also archived there.

Aside from writing and filmmaking, Waide is also a DJ in dance clubs from L.A. to Austin. He describes his playlist as Today's Country, Classic Rock and Golden Oldies. He also teaches Country Two Step.

Writers that have inspired and influenced him are Robert R. McCammon, Dean Koontz and W. A. Harbinson.

He finds he writes best and thrives on rainy days and nights. Feel free to contact Waide at www.waideriddle.com or waideriddle@hotmail.com.