AN EARLY GRAVE

Stephanie Smith

Arid boneyards. Lost childhood Summers

Pain drills holes into marrow

Welcomes worms to the fold

They crawl through tunnels of agony

The poetry of wounded tombs

Maggots marry flesh, conceive

Pain means nothing more than a photograph

The lust for dust

I, in my coffin prematurely

Stephanie Smith is a poet and writer from Scranton, Pennsylvania. In addition to Black Petals, her work has appeared in such publications as The Horror Zine, Carnage House, Illumen, Raven Cage, and The Devil's Playground anthology.