Wail of the Witches

Wail of the Witches

I heard the witches wailing on the wind—
The very witches I’d incinerated.
Don’t tell me that, in burning them, I sinned!
Don’t tell me that I’m justly compensated!
The fire I set was ordered by the Court.
A graver judge you’ve never known, O critic!
The whole community was in support.
The witches’ words were downright syphilitic.
And, when the smoke was in the heavy air,
Then all seemed in accord with proper reason.
How could I know that wails would still be there
As we were entering the windy season?
How could I know that wails would flap like crows?
How can I bear accusing sounds like those?

–Tom Riley

Floatworthy

Floatworthy

These made-up names like “Ta-Nehisi Coates”
Are funny, but you must suppress your smile.
Just like a witch, a frowning bokor floats.
These made-up names – like Ta-Nehisi Coates—
Are serious, you racist! Let your notes
Reflect that truth! No laughing in this aisle!
These made-up names like “Ta-Nehisi Coates”
Are funny — but you must suppress your smile.

–Tom Riley

We Just LOVE Those FREE OFFERS!

We Just LOVE Those FREE OFFERS!

 

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Nor does LOVE POEMS OF A HATEMONGER lack a Halloween connection. No, indeed! It’s got death goddesses and murderous maenads! It’s got witches who butcher their own flesh and blood! It’s got vampires that make the ones in Twilight look like namby-pamby, milk-sipping pajama boys! It’s even got Edgar Allan Poe and the dead ladies who haunted his life and art!

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Soulless Cackle

Soulless Cackle

 

“I feed on souls!” the apparition cried.
Kamala Harris gave her soulless cackle
And turned her back, her void self-satisfied.
“I feed on souls!” the apparition cried.
She cackled once again and said: “Denied!
I have more pressing challenges to tackle!”
“I feed on souls!” the apparition cried.
Kamala Harris gave her soulless cackle.

 

–Tom Riley

 

Sorcerers

Sorcerers

 

The Cult of Witches, lad, does not exist—
Bur sorcerers are everywhere you turn:
They laugh in sunlight and require no mist.
The Cult of Witches, lad, does not exist.
Exoneration here cannot be missed.
There is no handy crone you get to burn.
The Cult of Witches, lad, does not exist.
But sorcerers are everywhere you turn.

 

–Tom Riley

 

Yet Another Sex Robot Novel

Yet Another Sex Robot Novel

She thinks she’s avant garde and on the edge
Because her robot characters have sex.
Her brilliance she is happy to allege.
Patriarchs are the guys she seeks to vex.
The royalties that Stephen King collects
Are probably to her house not en route,
Although she’d really love to see such checks.
For less she’ll have to peddle her patoot.
What of her social comments, so astute?
What of her sheer originality?
A witch with heart of lead and brain of newt,
She’s far too self-important now to see
Some guy has won the prize for which she strives:
Ira Levin, who wrote The Stepford Wives.

–Tom Riley

 

Immediate Apprehension

Immediate Apprehension

 

She doesn’t have to reason. She just knows.
A good thing, too, since reasoning is not
Amongst her skills. At reasoning she blows.
(She practices her oral sex a lot.)
Fuck “truth” and all that patriarchal rot!
She casts a spell of seeing – and she sees.
She grasps the stuff that Sleepy Joe forgot.
You’re looking for a demonstration? Please!
Are we upset with her inanities,
Pissed at her bogus revolution show?
We’re no more pissed at that than at her sleaze.
Why aren’t we furious? What do we know
That makes it so her shit can only bore us?
She only cares about her own clitoris.

 

–Tom Riley

 

 

(Patheos slut Rebecca Bratten Weiss knows what Trump cares about.)

Messages

Messages

 
“I have just had a chat with the dead.”
“Tell us then, sorceress, what they said.”
“Nay, the tales that they told
Left my very bones cold!”
“Well, it’s hot in here now. Go ahead.”

 
–Tom Riley

 

William Blake, The Witch of Endor Raises Samuel

What Really Bites

What Really Bites

 

Well, yes, vampires and werewolves are bad.
Witches destined for burning are sad.
Ghosts may lead you off cliffs
and past troubling as-ifs.
But mosquitoes are deadlier, lad.

 

—Tom Riley

 

(Mosquito recognized as deadliest animal.)

Maleficae

Maleficae

 

In the cold and the darkness we meet.
Him who rules now we strive to unseat
From his heavenly throne.
Reasons? Those are our own.
Before long, we’ll be feeling the heat.

 

—Tom Riley