The November Editor's Pick Poet is

G. O. Clark

Please feel free to email G. O. at: goclark@att.net

INSOMNIA

Haunted by the tapping
of cat claws upon a hardwood floor,

he finds sleep impossible to come by,
this side of his silk lined coffin,

and wanders the night like a homeless
ghost wrapped in cardboard solitude,

a creature of dark alleys and dim light,
the hunger ever present,

the pulsing of jugulars
dark music to his sonar-sensitive ears,

the tapping of cat claws, that ticking
of a clock by one's death bed.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

His mom and dad
never told him about their
alien abductions.

His sister never shared
her stories about being part of a
college vampire clique,

and his brother
kept silent about his wartime
run-ins with zombies.

He learned these facts
later from his bohemian uncle,
the family artiste,

their keeper of secrets,
who one night over steak and ale
divulged quite a few,

including a most startling one,
which convinced him to become a
vegan, and avoid full moons.

THE STRANGER

The stranger sets off
car alarms when he stalks
the midnight streets, a shrill
warning to some.

Passing through
the cemetery, he pauses to
sharpen his long, black nails
on granite tombstones.

Each night he seeks out
darkened bedroom windows,
avoiding those still lit by
late night TV glow.

His prey is always the
same. Young, female, asleep
and dreaming of prom dresses
and athletic young men.

Come the morning,
a parent's worst nightmares
become real, sheets stained red
with shattered dreams,

the stranger come and
gone. Dead batteries, angry
commuters, death and sirens
left in his wake.

G. O. Clark's writing has been published in Asimov's Science Fiction, Talebones Magazine, Strange Horizons, Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy, Tales Of The Talisman, and many other publications. He's the author of nine poetry collections, the most recent "Shroud Of Night," 2011, and a fiction collection, "The Saucer Under My Bed and Other Stories," 2011.

He won the Asimov's Readers Award for poetry in 2001, and has been a repeat Rhysling and Stoker Award nominee. He retired from the University of California, Davis in 2008, where he worked in the library for many years.

You can visit Gary HERE