My Little Green Secret

An English-style vial of green pigment
Hides inside my piano, ghostly as
Moon-silvered glass, opal-pale like some witch-
Friendly potion—a Victorian skull
Grins back, mercury-soaked top hat
Askew its bone-vanilla head

Within I pretend are witch’s reagents:
Storm-purpled nightshade, old monkshood, wolf’s bane—
Hecate’s Queen of all Poisons—
Blood-red bloodroot juice –pudding form–
Milk-silky yellow bell, unpasteurized,
Flakes of witch-curled wormwood bark –cinnamon–
And sprinkles of stone-crushed yew berry seeds

Its fragrance stings like a necromantic
Effluvium of root-twisted decay

But within this oak-corked vial –age-hazed–
Lies no fleurs du mal,
No floral bouquet from skeletal leaves
And no cauldron-boiled witchcraft scheme—
But instead, the unhallowed science
Of arsenic-laced Emerald Green

Her opulent walls are papered with it
The mid-winter damp moistens its poison

Yet, when finely ground, verdigris pigment
Oven-baked in rustic copper
Becomes an odorless, paste-like glaze:
A cosmetic-inspired Paris Green—
My very own inheritance powder

Even better for witch-fever symptoms
Her oozing sores have confounded doctors for months

And though vividly delicious
On Victorian-papered walls
—Patterns of bats –spectral-green–, skeleton-
Fingered wings, gossamer-wisped veins, sinewed
Demon flesh, diffused and twisted through miles
Of pale-purpling opium flowers—
It too can be used for painted smiles
And smoke-inspired eyeshadow dyes

Go on, my darling, smudge a little more
–Just a little more–
To conceal your cancered lips and sleep-deprived eyes.

Eli John’s illustration to Clay Franklin Johnson’s poem “My Little Green Secret”, available to purchase in hardcover from our Bookstore, in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and select libraries throughout the world.

“My Little Green Secret” was selected among the Top 3 Poems in the Horror Writers Association’s Poetry Showcase 2017. The poem was nominated for a Rhysling Award in 2018.