Poems - Rob E. Boley OnlineRob E. Boley Online

I’ve listed below some of the poems I’ve had published in recent years. And here is one of my favorites:

The Length of His Spine
by Rob E. Boley

For twenty-nine and a half days
she paces the length of his spine,

claws clacking on vertebrae stacked
like blocks, while the moon shrinks
and then finally blossoms into a
dull white flower. She aches for even

the briefest sip of fresh air—the gentle
kiss of a breeze—but it’s the loneliness
that spoils her blood. From behind
the filmy window of his eyes, she longs

to embrace this pack of potential brothers,
sisters, and lovers—to kiss them and
sing with them songs of elation and
release. Maddened by solitude, she

throws herself against the bars of his
bone prison. She gnaws at the hard brick

of his muscles until Moon yawns wide
and Sun snuggles into Earth. Her

growl saws through his screams. She
paws and pushes and digs into his face

until she wears him like a mask,
blood dripping from her muzzle smile.
In a frenzy, she prowls for her friends,
the mates he would hide from her. She

embraces them, claws tearing their
flesh like butterfly wings. She kisses, teeth
ripping their smiles and tongue tasting
the warm drumbeat secreted within. And

as they shriek with bliss beneath the
full manic weight of her fellowship,
she tilts her head and howls with them a
song of joy and of love and of how

for twenty-nine and a half days
she paces the length of his spine.

– Originally published in Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase IV, 2017.