Snow, Blood, Ebony, By Rachel Ayers

He found her dead
and woke her.

Snow, blood, ebony:
these evoke only the
lifeless child he beheld.

He reimagines his bride.

Her lips are posey red,
rosy red,
for although flowers are fleeting
they live

as he brought her back to life.

Her skin is milkpale moonglow.

And black is:
the deep pool
of his horse's eye

or:
the well
of night sky

or:
the depths of earth
from which all life springs.

These gifts he gives her as they wed:
a second chance,
and his heart,
still beating.

Rachel tells us: "I have a Creative Writing major from Pittsburg State University.  My novelette "Sister and Serpent" won Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and my story "Job Hunting" won First Prize in the 2010 HarperCollins Radiant Prose contest.  My work has appeared or is forthcoming in: Isabelle Rose's Twisted Fairy Tale Anthology volumes 1 and 2 (Wicked East Press), Bull Spec, Living With the Dead: Year One, Death Rattle, and A Thousand Faces."