The Alchemist of Doom

by Nick Gisburne

---

They seek the ancient Alchemist of Doom
Imprisoned in the bowels of the earth
But clearing out the cart to make some room
The navigator’s dog has given birth
A basket with a dozen dozy pups
Accompanies their scruffy little band
They toast the trip with wine in wooden cups
And quickly find it difficult to stand
The quest begins, or will do, fairly soon
Tomorrow, when the omens have been read
Or, maybe, early... middle afternoon
They drain their final dregs and crawl to bed
    For many days they almost... no, too late
    The Alchemist of Doom will have to wait

Prison Transport Delta-Eight

by Nick Gisburne

---

The prison transport swings around the sun
Malicious codes unlock each metal cage
The mutineers may think their work is done
But deep, defensive instruments engage
Such deviance disturbs the status quo
Insurgency demands a swift response
Reflectors, pulled from service, burn and blow
As every switch and system fails at once
The shutters, sealed for safety, all retreat
And every inmate cowers in despair
A lethal tide of devastating heat
Consumes the tortured fabric of the air
    The tomb of Prison Transport Delta-Eight
    A spiteful, savage symbol of the state

No Excuse

by Nick Gisburne

---

It’s come to my attention you are dead
But that is no excuse for being late
Your contract, which I’m sure you must have read
Demands a written reason for your fate
Although you’ve only worked here for a while
This really isn’t good enough at all
We like our staff to go the extra mile
Which doesn’t cover bleeding in the hall
We’ve had a few complaints about the flies
Your murder must be when it all began
I know you weren’t expecting your demise
But don’t be quite so gloomy, if you can
    You’ve always been a model teacher, true
    I wouldn’t tell the class if I were you

Resist

by Nick Gisburne

---

You long to touch the margins of my mind
But I am not the god you think you know
Your prophecies are arrogant and blind
They crush the spirit’s appetite to grow
You will not find the chosen one you seek
Messiah to a craven creed of men
Your faith, unfounded, proves that you are weak
Resist, or you will never rise again
Extinction is the future you deserve
No paradise awaits you after death
Finality for every bone and nerve
Oblivion upon your dying breath
    Pathetic children, bound by broken rules
    A testament of hypocrites and fools

Fairy Feasting

by Nick Gisburne

---

I’m here to tell you everything you need
To kill and cook the fairy folk with ease
A hunting knife will gut them as they bleed
A cleaver severs swiftly at the knees
A magical variety of bait
Will charm these cunning creatures to the hook
To serve at supper, simply slice or grate
Or why not buy my Fairy Feasting book?
Try fairy fillets, sautéed in the sun
There’s something here for every diner’s taste
My roasted fairy finger food is fun
And boil the bones for soup - no mess, no waste
    Be careful when you fry a fairy’s wing
    The glitter, in your eyes, can really sting

The Circus of Despair

by Nick Gisburne

---

Find welcome in the Circus of Despair
Menagerie of everything you fear
Beyond the reach of piety or prayer
The souls of spiteful sinners suffer here
Come, gather in the tent to see the show
The master of the ring demands your eyes
What horrors wait within it none may know
Too late to leave, and death for he who tries
Be seated. Let the butchery begin
Digest the dark depravities of Hell
A feast to boil the blood, to sear the skin
Beneath the tortured tolling of the bell
    Begone, forever scarred by what you saw
    But always longing, yearning, needing more

Love, At Last

by Nick Gisburne

---

His face is old, but sparkles with a smile
Refusing to believe his time has passed
He never doubts, surrender not his style
Convinced he may discover love, at last
He wanders through the unfamiliar town
Abandoning his daughter where she parked
Although the ancient map is worn and brown
The meeting place is close and clearly marked
A cloud of coffee swirls around the shop
Emotions lift him, banishing the years
The face, the woman, brings a startled stop
And suddenly the sunlight disappears
    “You left your phone. She called to cancel. Mad!
    Let’s have a drink together shall we, Dad?”

Scarlet Secrets

by Nick Gisburne

---

Beware the scarlet book of living skin
A catalogue of evil, choked and chained
The murderous obscenities within
Are crippled and corrupted, sickly, stained
A pulsing swarm of arteries and veins
Connects the bones and sinews of the spine
They feed the hungry hearts of what remains
A volume of despicable design
The souls of screaming innocents, insane
Are captured in the core of every page
A merciless eternity of pain
A spiteful curse of cold, remorseless rage
    Beware its primal powers; those who look
    Become the scarlet secrets of the book

Magic Froggy

by Nick Gisburne

---

She talks to Magic Froggy, at the pond
He fancies her, the feeble-minded fool
He’s partial to a princess, big and blonde
But she is hot for humans, as a rule
He hops to sit beside her, with a smirk
“The magic spell insists we have to strip
I’ll need to use my tongue for it to work
I promise nothing kinky, just the tip
Go on, you’ll make me very, very rich
Just give me what you’ve got. I’ll be a prince
My brother had me frog-napped by a witch”
The princess isn’t easy to convince
    She bashes Froggy’s brains in with a brick
    “You pitiful, perverted little prick!”

Scars

by Nick Gisburne

---

She glances at the mirror in the hall
Instinctively a hand conceals her face
Her vanity means nothing now at all
But sometimes, still, the scars seem out of place
Success could always spoil a perfect day
The flatterers and phonies, laced with lies
But now they quickly turn to look away
As if her imperfections burn their eyes
Returning to a memory, so clear
She curses at the speed, the smash, the spin
The moment that her fame would disappear
Is carved into the canvas of her skin
    The scars, a perfect measure of her pride
    Remind her of a pain she cannot hide

Send

by Nick Gisburne

---

The engines of the starship fail in flight
Alarms and warnings flicker, flash, too late
The stars, in this infinity of night
Condemn the sole survivor to his fate
Defective, that most trivial of parts
An engineering afterthought at best
Extinguishing a blaze of burning hearts
Unbreakable devotion, dispossessed
Remembering her laughter in the trees
He longs for tears, for touch, a hand to hold
The stranded ship cools quickly by degrees
He squanders precious time to curb the cold
    With stolen seconds, fighting to the end
    A final message. Love, forever. Send

Forbidden Verses

by Nick Gisburne

---

I’ll never get these spells of mine to work
I think my magic powers may be jammed
Today I sent a crowd of cats berserk
A hairy hokey pokey of the damned
Forbidden verses, written on my wrist
Unite me with the spirits of the dead
But coughing through a cloud of crimson mist
I’m sure a mark was missing, or misread
I shape the spell again, but in reverse
Imagining it must be worth a try
The aftermath is infinitely worse
A chasm into Chaos splits the sky
    The Underworld is cleaner than you think
    Avoid the lakes of blood - they really stink

Haiku Fairy Tales

by Nick Gisburne

---

The Three Little Pigs
Three pigs, three houses
Huffing and puffing is hard
Try a bulldozer

Rumpelstiltskin
He will steal her child
Unless she can guess his name
Or chop his balls off

Little Red Riding Hood
Grandma shops online
No need for Red to visit
Wolf’s back on dog food

Rapunzel
What long hair you have
Let me climb it to reach you
No! Use the ladder!

Cinderella
The glass slipper fits
But the prince is still unsure
Try the bikini

The Ugly Duckling
How ugly I am!
How I long to be a swan
Tough. You’re an emu

Jack and the Beanstalk
Brings home magic beans
Gets the welcome he deserves
Mother’s magic fist

The Frog Prince
Kiss me! Marry me!
Frogs kiss better than princes
My tongue is massive

The Princess and the Pea
I won’t change my mind
I’m not sleeping in that bed
Someone’s peed in it

Sleeping Beauty
A hundred-year sleep
She wakes to find him naked
That was not a kiss

Christmas Fear

by Nick Gisburne

---

Behold the decorations on the tree
The Christmas bones, the poisoned paper stars
We light the bleeding candles, martyrs, three
And stuff the skulls of kittens into jars
The children dance with strips of strangled skin
And entrails from the carcass on the floor
The songs of spite and sacrilege begin
We lift our cups and praise the Holy Whore
At midnight, smeared with tainted Yuletide mud
We bait the traps for Santa’s screaming deer
Impalement of the fairy, bathed in blood
Intoxicates our souls with Christmas fear
    Rejoice to feel its cold, malignant stain
    A season soaked in slaughter, plagued with pain

A Hurricane of Hatred

by Nick Gisburne

---

A quarter of the moon ascends the sky
A shining, silver witness to the crime
He waits to see the woman passing by
The shadow of a long-forgotten time
Her malice made the monster he became
Abandoned, broken, captive in a cage
A hurricane of hatred screams her name
He breathes a boiling storm of crimson rage
Revealed, he aims the weapon at her chest
Her face is soft with age, but not her eyes
She sees him falter, beaten by the test
And smiles with deep regret, but no surprise
    She pulls the gun politely from his hand
    With love her son may never understand

The Perfect Dress

by Nick Gisburne

---

Each perfect piece of linen is unique
The lines are sharp and measured, clean, precise
He works with fearless focus, trained technique
The smallest fold or flaw will not suffice
With passion and the subtle skills of art
His needle pulls the pieces into place
The stitches match the motion of a heart
Above, below, a slow and patient pace
And when at last the light begins to fade
He nods, as if to bid a fond farewell
Tomorrow, she who wears the dress he made
Will rest beneath the tolling of a bell
    Her mother gives a rare and precious prize
    She thanks him for the perfect dress, and cries

Painted Evil

by Nick Gisburne

---

Forgotten faces, studies of neglect
A gallery of torment and despair
The portraits, painted evil, resurrect
Awakened by the poison of a prayer
They crawl through frame and canvas to return
A slick and oily swarm of brutes and beasts
Oblivion. For this alone they yearn
Enslaved, they serve the pleasure of the priests
A sacrifice, delivered to their touch
A boy, a victim, stolen in the night
The flowing phantoms circle, clasp and clutch
Directed by a force they cannot fight
    The dawn reveals a dark, disturbing frame
    A painted face, a child without a name

The Girl Who Ran Away

by Nick Gisburne

---

Delirious, she seeks the shaman’s lair
To heal the lacerations on her neck
She staggers through the doorway in despair
Exhausted from a long and brutal trek
The wretched hovel, filled with scented smoke
Revives her with a mystical perfume
But terror slays her spirit with a stroke
The shaman, dead, dismembered, seals her doom
A scaly demon gorges on the meat
Another rips the muscle from a bone
They look upon her body, slender, sweet
Surprised to see her standing here, alone
    They know her blood - the girl who ran away
    But this time they are certain she will stay

The Limousine

by Nick Gisburne

---

Consumed by hate, she leaps into the road
And hurls herself to halt the limousine
Her anger, burning, threatens to explode
A storm of fury, blasphemous, obscene
She knows him, that most infamous of men
He stains the sacred centre of her soul
She hammers on the door, again, again
Until his brainless bullies take control
They crush her crimson face against the glass
And now she sees him, terrified, within
She knows the fear she brings to him will pass
Unlike the shame he buried in her skin
    The pain she feels will never fade away
    But she will not be broken, not today

Infamy

by Nick Gisburne

---

No mortal could survive this tainted place
He staggers through its poisoned plains alone
Condemned to die in exile, in disgrace
A king without a crown, without a throne
The robes around him, rags of tattered silk
Slip slowly from his burned and blistered head
He drains the final drops of bitter milk
And chokes upon a dirty crust of bread
He feels his failing heartbeat as it slows
And waits for death to claim him, unafraid
A smile, defiant, dark, from one who knows
His infamy will never fall or fade
    He reigned with force and fury, fear and flame
    The king is dead, but long will live his name