s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

Thinning Veil
Tim Tolbert and Stormy Skies

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There’s a whisper in the wind,
Do you know where your children are?
The throaty howls
Of my ancestors
There’s a chill in the air
Hell is freezing
Hard as bone
You are tangled
As my tree
Die one day,
Live the next
Vestal Virgin
Skeleton dance your Black Sabbath,
At the stake
You’ve crisped my brain
Searing my mask;
Perhaps we’ll meet
Door to door
I’m full of surprises

Sheets cleaned
For more than a shroud
A Samhain sacrifice;
In the hills:
Rivers run red
With broken promises
My teeth
A cutting knife
Stabbing you
With my every word on the butcher’s Block
Pure penetration
The treat that keeps on giving.
Moonlight X-Ray
Seeing your scent
Caked in mud
Stand in the field
Like a scarecrow
Stuffed but exposed
Inside yet out,

I’ll wait till then.
And you can carve me up
As your jack o’lantern
But first
Take out my guts

-Tim Tolbert

A terror woke me
“Do not trust the moon”
Deceive me once and
I am the fool.
Rotten fields, succumbed to plague
Something wicked,
I feel you coming,

The voice of your children
Calling
They do your bidding,
Yes, yes, yes…
Then gone again.

Lost inside my head,
Bats beat their way out,
Bells ring in the distance,
The landscape you’ve created in my
Head.
This is your design.

364 days, until this very moment,
Careful preparation,
My maker, I’ll soon meet.
The blood of the Spring,
Drenched,
Soaked through.
The air changes,
It smells right.

Pumpkins left behind,
Light the way,
Around every corner
My final resting place,
The devil is in
Your eyes
A gleaming weapon
Thrown aside
Making more than
Just a killing.

Your hunger,
Gives you away,
Finally slaked
As you breathe my air
As you open me up
As you drink my soul.

-Stormy Skies

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Tim Tolbert is a freelance writer and actor, staying sane through the arts. Based out of Pittsburgh, he is finishing his BA in English Literature from The Pennsylvania State University. His poetry can be found in ABSENCE Literary & Visual Art Review Magazine. If you meet Mr. Tolbert, ask him on a date, for he often has no plans.

Stormy Skies received her Master’s degree in Publishing from The George Washington University. Her works can be found in STRAPPED zine, ABSENCE Literary & Visual Art Review Magazine, Junto Magazine, Civil Coping Mechanisms, and Anti-Heroin Chic Magazine. She currently lives in Southwestern Pennsylvania surrounded by wilderness.