Haunted Autumn
︎︎︎ Sua Yoo
︎ September 24, 2022
I thought I fell in love with a magician
But they turned out to be a big, fat boiling frog
How salacious! I thought,
Wandering through the hall of scaly oats
That had sprung up overnight, stitching
The creaking patchwork floorboards
Bloated with mildew brush strokes
Children run through the corridor, a fireplace
Roars at secretarial logs burning with shame
But then a turnkey rasps and an ember spit
from a gasp
Swallows a panel dripping with wood gore
How bare! they chimed,
Rattling a baby on their knee
The haunted musk of a ripe pumpkin husk
Zips around the courtyard with manic savagery
The baby suckles a torn lace sleeve
A beetle, upturned, lies dying in the carpet weave
And at the magic hour, a rabbit returns to its
sheath
But they turned out to be a big, fat boiling frog
How salacious! I thought,
Wandering through the hall of scaly oats
That had sprung up overnight, stitching
The creaking patchwork floorboards
Bloated with mildew brush strokes
Children run through the corridor, a fireplace
Roars at secretarial logs burning with shame
But then a turnkey rasps and an ember spit
from a gasp
Swallows a panel dripping with wood gore
How bare! they chimed,
Rattling a baby on their knee
The haunted musk of a ripe pumpkin husk
Zips around the courtyard with manic savagery
The baby suckles a torn lace sleeve
A beetle, upturned, lies dying in the carpet weave
And at the magic hour, a rabbit returns to its
sheath
Sua Yoo is an aspiring actor, pianist, and MMA fighter. Sua most recently co-established PURPOSE REPAIR SHOP LLC, where collective dreams are repaired and/or produced.
Also by Sua: Full Frontal Jackrabbit, Here we are on the cusp, I’m bathed in June, Love is long overdue