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Benjamin Blake

The July Selected Poet is Benjamin Blake

Please feel free to email Benjamin at:

benjaminblakeyrtw@gmail.com

Benjamin Blake

MANSIONETTE

There’s somebody else inside of me
He whispers like the wind through deadened branches
Turning me to a marionette
Stumbling down the endless corridors of this empty house
Contorted and desperate
Without a hope in the world

ALL AND NOTHING

Fell in love with a shadow of my former self
Thanks to the work of a fortune-teller witch
She spat out my future
Hand-printed on the back of a birthday card
I took one look at it
And ran straight across town to her house

Don’t worry about the lightning rod
It’s faster if I do it myself
This skin is used to being struck
And you aren’t fond of bad weather
The funnel cloud is forming now
On the outskirts of this sorrowful little town

I don’t care about the neighbors
There’s only room for the two of us
I’m a relatively honest man, but by no means a martyr
And if he ever touches you again
I’ll have his teeth
Just hold still, and bury your head in my chest

THE LONELY ONE

Haunting the streets and crevices of this small town
Once the dusk bleeds into night
And that fat old moon with his pet wolf
Can see every blinking streetlamp
For miles around

Autumn’s discarded leaves scatter as I pass by
Entwined with candy wrappers
And small pieces of fabric
Torn from a dog-snatched costume piece
Life can be rather pleasant when you’re dead

ARLINGTON

In dire need of a town
To play host to these dreary bones
Somewhere, where one can suffer in relative contentedness
Where feeling less than half dead, is the exception—not the rule
As I have had my fill of downtrodden nights
And disenchanted days
For if I am really dying
I want to do it right

Benjamin Blake was born in the July of 1985, and grew up in the small town of Eltham, New Zealand. His prose and poetry have been published in Australia, the U.K., and the States, including publications Danse Macabre, Black Petals, Morpheus Tales, Aphelion, and The Los Angeles Review. He is the author of the poetry collection, A Prayer for Late October, published by Hammer and Anvil Books. He also contributed to the 2012 anthology, A Feast of Frights from the Horror Zine. Find more of his work (and photography) at www.benjaminblake.com

a prayer for late october