December Lace
They keep me in neon basement dungeons
Where red lights flash on/off in the stairway
The chains and leather that breed me come in droves
Salt stained bodies writhing on grime-soaked sheets
Skin sticking together like glue
The dirt seeping in far deeper than the fabric
I tell them I bring them gifts
I tell them I bring them promise
The teeth gnawing on each other, enamel breaking
Thrashing for water, fighting for air
They want me as though I were religion
The escape, sealed off forever by doors built decades ago
Dark faces seething through locked jaws
Twisted ecstasies and thrusting pelvises
The ways I won’t wake them, the ways I let them stay
***
December Lace is a former professional wrestler and pinup model. She has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, The Molotov Cocktail, The Cabinet of Heed, Vamp Cat, and Rhythm & Bones YANYR Anthology, among others as well as the forthcoming Ghostlight, The Magazine of Terror, and Rhythm & Bones Dark Marrow. She loves Batman, burlesque, cats, and horror movies. She can be found on Twitter @TheMissDecember, http://decemberlace.blogspot.com, or in Chicago’s obscure bookshops.