Slasher Flick

Slasher Flick

 

 

Villain goes in for cutting, not raping.
With a blade he is eagerly shaping
dreadful outcomes for teens:
no restraint intervenes.
But a virgin has hope of escaping.

 

 

–Tom Riley

The Philosophy of Composition (Short Version)

The Philosophy of Composition (Short Version)

 

 

In composing “The Raven,” Poe tried
to rely on pure reason — defied
every rush of the blood,
all that rose from the mud.
So he told us. We know that he lied.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Blue Walls

Blue Walls

 

 

(in memoriam P.S.R.)

 

 

On your way out, you made a lot of notes
and fixed them to the blue walls of your room.
Disorder too proceeds by asymptotes,
and little daily losses spell our doom.
On the envisioned future we presume
too often, and it always turns away.
We look for cover in affected gloom.
In empty lecture halls, we have our say.
That’s why the quiet game you chose to play
against your dissolution was a burst
of brilliance in the fog’s advancing gray.
Chaos talked tough. You got your licks in first.
Your notes were fiercer than the noonday sun.
I never dared to read a single one.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Short Version)

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (Short Version)

 

 

When they’re shaped by the sly M.R. James,
tales are dry. Guys with scholarly aims
lead their scholarly lives.
Then the terror arrives–
and their learned games cease to be games.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Costume Party

Costume Party

 

 

It’s Lena Dunham, suety as sin
and funny as a pimple on my ass.
She’s thinking that Planned Parenthood is “in.”
She’s opting for a costume crude and crass.
She’ll be a killer of a different class–
a smug and murderous abortionist.
That sure fits in with Jack the Ripper, lass:
it’s clear you’ll make the gory costume list.
Enhancements I suggest must not be missed.
Go buy a baby doll, dismember it,
let it with crimson paint be amply kissed,
then glue the bloody limbs, you ugly shit,
to the white coat that you are pleased to wear.
From fellow monsters you’ll win praise to spare.

 

 

–Tom Riley

 

 

(Actress Lena Dunham will be a Planned Parenthood abortionist for Halloween.)

Mr. Mears

Mr. Mears

 

 

“He wrote an outline of a novel in motel rooms before they hit Central Falls, Rhode Island.”

 

 

After he staked the vampire king, he got
right to work — for the next book on his mind
wailed to be bodied forth. No, he was not
lazy, that guy, nor much toward rest inclined.
His solemn duty there was self-assigned.
He could have given weary flesh a pass.
Instead, he got his sad self realigned
as fast as possible — and moved his ass.
When we’ve exhausted all religious sass
and found the limits of transcendent white,
though sneering critics rule your efforts crass,
still you will fill the unforgiving night,
Benjamin Mears, with fierce illumination
and show the dark that work is our salvation.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Reason for Being

A Reason for Being

 

 

With a sense of extreme urgency,
she proceeds. Oh, she moves hastily!
Yes, her orientation
is almost desperation–
till she reaches her morning TV.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Project

The Project

 

 

On his project, he got going quick.
He was focused. It made us all sick
to observe his advance
in the mindfield of chance.
All his planning did not help a lick.

 

 

–Tom Riley

Room at the Top

Room at the Top

 

 

“There is room at the top!” he declared–
and then climbed while immense gargoyles glared.
There was room, more or less–
and he soon knew success.
Then he looked down and trembled: “I’m scared!”

 

 

–Tom Riley

Pet Sematary (Short Version)

Pet Sematary (Short Version)

 

 

Pets come back, but they’re not good as new.
Cat is twisted inside, through and through,
when at last it returns.
Family’s dad never learns–
and the poor kid comes back, twisted too.

 

 

–Tom Riley