Spider in the Bedroom by Kailey Tedesco

drop your candelabra; blaspheme the flames, the heart

in the box behind the wall

of the nightstand. it is the two of us here & i’ve something

to say with cinnamon-breath, language

of drawing your shawl more closely

to the shoulder –

it’s you & not me & we are one walk-in

soul transference. they will say

you are not you after this moment, after

my body with backwards

feet kisses at your forehead. i’ve never seen

a ghost without its cameo, decapitated

to remind you it is the image of something

dead and gone. hold your crucifix

to create a light-prism. i want you to. it is

always snuffing, always shushing,

always walls waving friendly at

your screaming. the bed is

stuck with gazing, sheeted in a cold

molasses. capture me — i’ve needed

to be home for such a long time.

Kailey Tedesco is the author of She Used to be on a Milk Carton (April Gloaming Publishing) and These Ghosts of Mine, Siamese (Dancing Girl Press). She is an associate editor for Luna Luna Magazine and a co-curator of Philly’s A Witch’s Craft reading series. Her manuscript Lizzie,Speak won White Stag Publishing’s full-length poetry prize. You can find her work featured or forthcoming in New South, Fairy Tale Review, fields, Bone Bouquet Journal, and more. For more information, please visit kaileytedesco.com or follow @kaileytedesco.