The Girl from Providence

Sandy DeLuca

Each day she walked ten blocks

to the chapel;

her hair dark and wild,

black liner, platform shoes,

ouroboros tat on her left arm.

Providence in summer.

Arcade rich with poetry and books.

Chinese restaurant on the corner.

City hall and smoky hauntings.

Long-haired boys stopped and stared.

Strange men followed.

But could not harm her.

She knew secrets,

and incantations.

Salt sprinkled on pavement.

Tied a prayer bead to her belt.

You loved her then,

read her letters,

taught her to conjure monsters…

shared grandpa’s grimoire.

One night, she vanished through a mirror
over the bathroom sink;
her footsteps in ashes of your rituals;

Tobacco flavored wine and belladonna…
salt and prayer cards on the sill.

Now, she knows darker mysteries…

the kind city boys write on abandoned mills…

sigils and hex signs beneath a ruined bridge…

crooked road to the deepest abyss.

No coming back.

© Sandy DeLuca 2024

Sandy DeLuca has written novels, several poetry and fiction collections and a few novellas. These include critically acclaimed works such as DESCENT and MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD.  Over the past three years, she also co-authored three novels with Greg F. Gifune.

            She was a finalist for the BRAM STOKER © for poetry award in 2001, with BURIAL PLOT IN SAGITTARIUS; accompanied by her cover art and interior illustrations. A copy is maintained in the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays Poetry at Brown University, 1976-2000. She was also nominated once more in 2014, with Marge Simon, for DANGEROUS DREAMS.

          Her visual art has also been published in books and magazines. It has been exhibited throughout New England and in New York’s Hudson Valley.

          She lives in Rhode Island with several feline companions, including a black cat named Gypsy and her two sons, Gemini and Leo. Another black cat, named Mojo, joined the household in 2023. He was born in her great grandfather’s house, a structure that was once a stagecoach stop. It’s the inspiration for recent short stories; and a novel in progress.

          In addition to her fiction, she is working on new poetry and a series of large-scale expressionistic paintings. She spends some of her free time volunteering at a local food pantry and a parrot sanctuary. Other interests include photographing abandoned buildings and perusing secondhand shops.