Theda Bara, by Melinda Giordano

The twilight came
Shuttering like an eyelid
Languid and full of lavender
Stained with kohl and twilight
Like Theda Bara stretched across the sky

Her golden cobras
Spat and curled across the sunset
The gilded animal horizon
Her venomous hair crawling
Her dark vanity and vampire perfume

Sparking through her curls
Stars pierced her dangerous skin
Lacerations becoming constellations
Blood dripping into the sun
And bubbling like a witches’ brew

And then the moon came
To scold her errant minions
The bright delinquents who should know better
Than to make her rise
To defend a fellow goddess in pain

(Image from the Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

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Melinda Giordano is a native of Los Angeles, California.  Her written pieces have appeared in the Lake Effect Magazine, Scheherazade’s Bequest, Whisperings, Circa Magazine and Vine Leaves Literary Journal among others. She was also a regular poetry contributor to CalamitiesPress.com with her own column, ‘I Wandered and Listened’ and was nominated for the 2017 Pushcart Prize. She writes flash fiction and poetry that speculates on the possibility of remarkable things – the secret lives of the natural world.  Melinda is interested in history and anything to do with Aubrey Beardsley, her favorite artist.