'Incantation' & 'Seer': Two Poems by Claire Loader

INCANTATION

Light up, light up

the night sky of my desire

write my heart on your bonfire

I’m ready for you

Like the Cathars at Carcassonne

witches on trial

the blaze doesn’t scare me

come let it inside

On this midwinter night

strewn on the pyre

come crowd and come smell

my flesh now on fire

---

SEER

She woke

to memories of fire

smoke lingering like wisps

of a dream

Bracken damp

she floated, on the waves

of those before her

drowned, in the flush

of their bones

Tasted the flesh

of those once damned

knows, we too

are for the flame

---

Claire Loader was born in New Zealand and spent several years in China before moving to County Galway, Ireland. Her dark fiction and photography has appeared in various publications, including The Sirens Call, The Ginger Collect, Massacre Magazine and Dark Moon Digest. Find Claire on Twitter: @msloader

Photograph by Claire Loader, taken at the Ross Errilly Abbey.