Death Dance
Image created on Canva
**Trigger warning: Death, supernatural reflection**
Death comes to all people wearing a dark smoking jacket embellished with blood red embroidery,
Eyes glittering to match the thread work.
His chuckle is soft but commanding
“Come, Cherie!” and souls respond.
Boney fingers reach to clutch heart and hands.
A gasp of surprise, and then gone! As he whirls them into the ether.
Light bounces off his jacket creating colors of splendid beauty;
Vibrant,
Ephemeral,
Inviting…
Once frightening, now soothing, his dance into soul moves through time
Death grins as the spirits relax into the steps.
No fear,
No regret
Just the sounds of the night sinking in and bones rattling.
“Michael, have you come to carry me away from this horrific landscape?” the chosen one whispers.
Death nods once.
Looking behind her shoulder, as she twirls, there is a city of souls joining the dance:
Puffs of smoke from burnt out buildings.
Resting her head against Death, she realizes that the evil one chose chaos—
Blew the City to pieces.
That she was just a domino, a pile of dust,
A statistic.
Death’s dance leads the journeying souls to safety:
No more fear or pain for them —
They are free.
But not her.
She was chosen.
Death stops his spiral footwork only when his replacement is ready.
Clinging to Death as she becomes part of the dance —
A soul unwilling to move forward,
Eyes, once brown, now glittering red.
She wears a long red gown with a black sash;
Her velvet cape is adorned with a deep hood to hide her skeletal face.
Will she return to the dance?
Of course!
With a toss of her skirts, Death’s dance becomes a killer tango.
Find more haunting poetry, fiction, and essays for your Halloween needs right here at the MockingOwl Roost!
- Mrs. Morris and the Vampire, Halloween Fiction Review
- The Flying Dutchman – Dark Humor Poetry Reading
- The Follies of Fashion – Dark Comedy Flash Fiction Reading
- A Spooky Sight – Halloween Poetry
- Of Bats and Ravens at the Black Orb – Halloween Fiction
- The Witchling – Halloween Poetry
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Creepy, Cozy Halloween Fiction
- The Last Stop – Halloween Fiction
Sue Cook lives in Freeport, Illinois with her husband Randy and two dogs. Her passions include assistance dogs, rescue dogs, music, acting, theater, poetry, and Doctor Who. She’s been in both film and theater and is a regular cast member of the podcast Doctor Who’s Line is it….Anyway? Sue is an advocate for the use of Service Dogs to assist their disabled handlers to maintain their independence. Quigley’s Quest, her first children’s book, addresses how a dog becomes a Service Dog.
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