Corset
by Serena Mossgraves
strangling
I struggle to breathe,
the tightness nearly
breaking me...
pull the strings,
tighter still,
for vanity demands
the corset drawn
to bone tight.
Wednesday Whispers
Category: W.I.P.
Wednesday Whispers
Murder
by Serena Mossgraves
A murder takes flight
on wings of shadow
against a field of
the purest white
towards an azure sky.
I find myself wanting
to join them,
spreading wings and
taking flight.
The extreme beauty
in the difference
between the
shadow and the light,
fills the world
with wistful imagination.
Wednesday Whispers
Drops of Light
by Serena Mossgraves
I don't need to see
bright examples of
Illumination,
Don't you see that simplicity
will work for me?
Minor drops of light
to illuminate
that which I need to
examine.
Do not flood my sight
when you can easily instead
illuminate gently
what I need to see.
Wednesday Whispers
One Candle
by Serena Mossgraves
is it too much
to light a single candle,
to illuminate the world
one small light at a time?
One Candle to fight the darkness,
one Candle to push the dreary away.
I am not trying to rid the world
of all the darkness,
That is too much for me to try,
I just want to push some light
into the world so that I might see.
One Candle is enough for me.
Wednesday Whispers
White Out
by Serena Mossgraves
so many have associated
the color black with death,
I think it is not true.
Black is the mix of all that is
whereas white is the absence .
Absence of color,
absence of life,
absence of the existence
of what was and what
could be.
The votes are in plus updates
I ended up with votes each for burning the soul within, Ghosts of Gehenna, and Illumination. So I asked my boyfriend to be the tie breaker. He chose this one.
Serena’s thoughts are that it is appropriate. One should always illuminate after the darkness.
On that note, my volume Dream Drops is scheduled for release April 4th(link should be available soon …) her Darkness Within is already available in some places for pre-order.
Ars Poetica will be finished being written in April so we will have to see when we can get it on the schedule for publication. Lost Notes is dragging a bit but I am expecting to publish it in 2025 as well .
Of the two children’s books I have planned for kids week 2025 one is written and illustrated.(I just have to put it all together. ) The other one is in the idea stage.
Serena’s Heavens Forgotten Tales was scheduled for release in February but due to a small snafu, I believe it is going to be a delayed to March thing.
I am hoping Serena will be able to get farther into Sea Wytch this year. I would like to see it publishing by 2026 if possible.
Serena is needing help
apparently I have made her too many options. she just finished Darkness Within and needs help to pick the new volume.
Wednesday Whispers
Darkness Settles in
by Serena Mossgraves
the cloud of hatred passes above
making it hard to see,
the urge to just complain
falls over me.
the darkness is everywhere
settling across the souls,
it is easy to vent and give in to
the urge to call on our own
frustration, don’t I know…
But instead of putting more hatred
into an already full world
I am interested in trading peace
to weave kindness to begin.
A Whisper…
The Reaper’s Child
By Serena Mossgraves
The world seems to be a place where myths are taken for granted. Everyone knows the Myth of the pilot of the River Styx. The Ferryman who ferries souls over to the afterlife for a cost. They all have it wrong though. The Reaper doesn’t want coin. They are an immortal being. Such creatures have no need for money. The ferry driver instead takes the best story each soul has to tell. Sometimes just the telling of the story is too much for a soul to bear. Words carry weight. They are the most painful things in existence. They can also be the most gratifying things that life has to offer.
The ferryman has so many names, and most of them are just the myths coming to signify the way the mortal beings see them. For me, they are my creator. I guess you could call me the reaper’s child. It is not exactly correct, but it is the closest term for what I am. I am a story that became too much for even an immortal mind to bear. So, I grew sentience. Now I search the world for the others like myself, dark stories and memories that weigh heavy on mortality. Stories of killers, and crime, heartache, and such twisted thoughts that they are relegated to impossible fiction. That is the sort of thing that I collect. Like the ferryman I take these weights from the ones who cannot bear them any longer. I think of it as saving those souls who would break under such terrible weights.
I save each story in a notebook, lovingly hand written. My creator kept the stories told to them in perfect memory…I am not quite that blessed. Instead I will keep my notebooks…Stacked full of nightmares. The only story I have been able to remember without writing it down is the one that caused my creation. Perhaps someday I will meet the snowman…I would love to collect all of Frosty’s stories. I can only imagine what notebooks I could fill with that.
I have collected the tale of a vampire that would use it’s victims for the creation of art.
And the tale of the ghost who used to be a mercenary in a rainforest expedition that went badly. He was a wealth of stories. He gave me my own nightmares for weeks after taking his stories.
I collected the story of the nun who was cursed with immortality. It drove her mad. She spoke of becoming a killer, and how it was a kindness to save the women from the hands of the priests.
Each tale has it’s own power to describe a different aspect of life, a different aspect of death.
The story of the woman who went back after she died to steal away the child that her husband loved more than he loved her…She sang it sweet lullabies as she took it to the edge of the River Styx.
I could easily entertain so many with my tales. Which story should I share? Perhaps about the creature named Harvey? The flesh-eater that enjoyed driving it’s meals mad first?
I have considered passing myself off as a horror writer. Telling my tales as if they were fiction to see if anyone would recognize. It is not as if I do not have thousands of dark and dismal tales.
There is the one about the three ghosts who tried to get a rich man to change his ways before it was too late.
or the one about the Witch who gave five teens their wish…but at what cost?
My notebooks are a treasure. I do not write the story whilst the teller yet lives. I make sure to leave them a tale to pay the ferry with. I can at least be that kind. Though I have considered what would happen in this world if there where not enough stories left to pay the ferry. Would all of the storytellers end up stuck here? And if they did would that just create more interesting tales?
I don’t dare allow myself to consider it too closely. I might just decide that I want all of the stories.
Okay….1. That is the first flash Fiction in Stacked Nightmares. 2. How many of Serena’s Stories can you see a nod to in that? I will say that one of the stories she refers to is not Serena’s to tell. It belongs to Malachi Nocturm. However, He is very uncertain about how good his writing is…so I don’t know if I can talk him into finishing it and then allowing me to publish it. So I used a small nod because I love the idea. This is the first thing I have been able to write (Other than Poetry) in 2 weeks. It has a word count of 680. So I had to share it.
Also Serena’s Story Heat & Ice was Accepted by Fractured Mind Publishing for their A Monster I Love Anthology. I will post more as I have details.
Pattimouse 