nigredo moth song

you are the clinging taken flight
ev’ry night at behest of gaslight
a shadow’s veil o’er pale lea
froing ev’ry where with ev’ry care
a full-wing’d catastrophe

expell’d from skeet cocoon
& still not yet fully bloom’d
unaliv’d to breathe again
into hallow’d dustings of lung & wing

the flame, they say, casts a treacherous spell
but you’ll scudder through like you always do
prevail somehow, wee gossamer soul

you are the feelings all at once
all fronts abandoned to the hunt
to dire thunder afore the dawn
ev’ry care to ev’ry prayer
to ev’ry thready need to mourn

but dusk can ne’er negate joy
tho’ you feel not yet fully bouy’d
forsake all the haggl’d horrow
in begotten age of thrum & wing

the flame, they say, casts a treacherous spell
but you’ll scudder through like you always do
prevail somehow, wee gossamer soul

the tide does heap perilous weight
its freight upon you a cragging hate
dragging the air from your charcoal frame
ev’ry prayer scries ev’ry where
hying too close to dark waters again

traject’ries erratic as night is long
are you feeling too much all o’er again
will you be a conclusion forgone
you surely cannot be the only one

the flame, they say, casts a treacherous spell
but you’ll scudder through like you always do
prevail somehow, wee gossamer soul

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2025

GUEST POST // Talking in Code by Whitecatgrove

Lay down, lay down, antlers fallen from
the crown. A king falls, a doe dies, and wise
the mouse who makes his house in the moss!
O the cost of this solitary life —
paid out in blood and mountaintops, the coin
of misunderstandings. The warbler
cannot understand the mockingbird’s
almost-speech. I’m tired. I’m talking in code.
The deer’s wild heart beats its mighty last.
This too shall pass. The vultures crack the bones.

by WHITECATGROVE
© All rights reserved 2025

Tumblevision #28

She’s stronger than the tide.

by TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024

GUEST POST // Cavalry by Whitecatgrove

They say: Be afraid. I regard the nettles
with their hard sting. The toothed hawthorn. Brambles
that grab your pantleg and refuse to let go.

Songbirds strafe the mighty hawk, drive him
branch to branch, then out of the sky. A swan
flexes angel wings and breaks a man’s arm.

A pebble does not relent, nor a splinter.
Thorns of a white rose can topple a king.
They say: Be afraid but the maddened doe

lashes with sharp hooves and the hunter goes
hungry. A cavalry of geese arrives
and no nest will be raided by serpents.

by WHITECATGROVE
© All rights reserved 2025

oh my god

in the beginning
god created the queue
& placed it before a mall
there was no grinning
just shoppers in a stew
spoiling for a pre-sale brawl

& god saw that it was good
evening & morning, one day

in the beginning
god made anxieties
& placed them in a poodle
there was no trimming
just fleas & bad matting
a pentagram on its noodle

& god saw that it was good
evening & morning, two days

in the beginning
god made uncertainties
& placed them square in harm’s way
there was no winning
just wrong math, bugs & pleas
404 page, print delay

& god saw that it was good
evening & morning, three days

but the next morning
the fourth & final day
god made the reaper from dust
then gave a warning
not to get in god’s way
‘cos he could no longer be arsed

& god didn’t give a rats that it was not good
evening & morning, the reaper joined the poodle at the discount sale
& got a killer deal on a brand new nintendo switch 2

by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2024