Asylum of Lost Souls

by

Joseph V. Danoski

“Abandon All Hope and Belief All Ye Who Enter,” should say the sign above the door.

Give in blithely to despair and drink deeply the madness of eternal Happy Hour.   Join those who’ve descended into ruin; down the darkest steps, to the deepest depths, of these dead pits where lives spiral in circles toward a common center.

This is the abyss—the barrel’s bottom, where you share in the secret, and people the spirit of stench that resides here.  Where the same faces of fools crowd an altar of drink and spilled change, like inmates in some reoccurring nightmare.

This is the midnight asylum of souls trapped behind the looking glass; the mirror world of lost hopes and shattered dreams.  A place of human wrecks and bitter dregs, drinking and drowning in the backwash of their own afterbirth.

Fading ghosts and shadows of former selves in a smoke-filled still-life, feeding the eyes of he who tends the bar.

And in the drab and dreary corners, those old discarded souls sucked dry before their time; empty lives living dead like flies in a web.

Copyright 2011 by Joseph V. Danoski

Joseph V. Danoski lives happily on the “plains of his imagination” in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  He published his first book of poems, Shock Waves: Letters from the Edge, back in 1987, under his infamous pen name, Jonathan Konrad.  This book is still being sold in local bookstores, and has been reviewed favorably a number of times. 

Through the years, Joseph has had quite a few of his poems published in the city’s newspaper, The Berlin Reporter, where for a time he had a byline in its poetry corner.  In 1997 he was asked by the Chamber of commerce to write something appropriate for the Berlin Centennial Celebration.  After researching the history of the area and the paper-making industry, he wrote a poem titled, The City Built from Trees, which he was subsequently invited to read at City Hall.

Joseph is a writer of letters and essays on diverse subjects, with strong opinions on many topics; but first and foremost, a poet of horror, science fiction and fantasy.  His other activities include playing music, gardening, hiking, and stargazing.  Recent publications are in included in Penny Dreadful, Psychopoetica (U.K.), Hadrosaur Tales, The Quest (India), Black Petals, and The Horror Zine.

Email: Dojonaki@Netscape.Net