Erin Emily Ann Vance

Macha

Moths flock to her
when she comes in through the hotel window
they flutter against her shoulders
and sip on her breasts
drawing out honey with their eyes
the wildflowers creep up her legs
there are flat stones under her feet
and a strange hand on her back
his fingers are rough from running
through her
and fingering the bark on her chest
She runs farther each day

Grace O’Malley

she slipped into the stone room
floated like a specter with knotted hair and parted lips
she spat
and from her mouth shot
a stinging nettle

The Falling Sickness

there is the epileptic
and the hysteric;
violent muscular contractions
that fix the limbs
in unnatural altitudes

the severe fits indicate
demonic possession
but in 1000 cases, 815
were purely epileptic

Tricks

      The disease
   is a broken clock
            that
               ticks
            behind
               your cheeks
               it licks
                  your sockets
               click
            tick
      mimics
   a restlessness
      a tick
     that breaks
   licks the inside
         of your skull
            tick
               click
                  your body rips
            in time
                       to the endless
      click tick click tick
            twitch
           of your neck
      your vertebrae
         clack
               against the
   swell of your ribs
               the lick
      of your bones
           against your
         oil slick
              skin
                click clack
                        tick

                              lick
                         the disease
                                      it tricks
                             the bitch