Dark Entry IV

I found a family of silverfish,
Glittery scales and caudal filaments twitching,
Living on the back cover of a magazine
Inside a white comic-book storage box.

I picked up the magazine
But the image on the back cover crumbled
Into dusty black bits as smaller insects scurried.
I crushed the bugs beneath my fingers,
Each a tiny smeared wetness.

A very large silverfish,
Almost the size of my finger,
Bloated body glistening with a vibrant metallic hue,
Reared up on thick centipede-like hind legs.

A strange cognizance crept over me
As miniscule eye stalks on extra-long antennae
Stared at me with an ancient pity
Before I smashed the giant bug into the pages of the magazine.

But, now even hours after, my room seems smaller
And, if I listen very carefully, there is a clicking in the shadows.









Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Chad Hensley’s first book of poetry, Embrace the Hideous Immaculate, was published in May 2014 by Raw Dog Screaming Press. His poetry has received honorable mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror as well as being nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award.  Look for more of his poetry in Spectral Realms from Hippocampus Press and Weird Fiction Review from Centipede Press. His writings on underground subjects, music, and art, EsoTerra: The Journal of Extreme Culture, is accessible through Creation Books and available at Amazon.com.