Issue 3,  Poetry

I Break the Witch’s Hourglass by December Lace

The novelty of wearing sparkly stilettos 
To spite an absinthe-faced witch has worn off
My shins are suffering spasms from supporting muscles walking miles of yellow brick

While I wait for the witch’s envy colored face
To storm up cement steps and claim my soul for some shoes,
She clouds outside in a storm of fur torsos and wings

I pace, and rain runs down my cherub cheeks
This ruined castle temporarily holding me
As the granules of sand slip through the glass waist of an instrument

Measuring time to mock my final moments of safety
When I can only think of a paint-chipped home is too much to bear
I gather my courage and hear a ticking in my heart

Brandishing my tears with the backs of my wrists, 
I heave the ancient wooden hourglass up to my darkening face
And splay my fingers apart, dropping the invention

Watching the sand, wood, and glass explode
At my sparkled feet
                                         I decide when my time is up

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December Lace is a former professional wrestler and pinup model. She has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, TPG, Empower Magazine, The Molotov Cocktail, PussyMagicLit, Lonesome October, Erie Tales, and Awkward Mermaid as well as the forthcoming Ghostlight, The Magazine of TerrorThe Cabinet of Heed, and Rhythm&Bones YANYR Anthology. She can be found on Twitter @TheMissDecember, http://decemberlace.blogspot.com or in the obscure bookshops of Chicago.

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