Poetry by James Dennis Casey IV æ Art by Max Alley

A skeleton rider
Upon a rotten horse
Ancient warrior
Enchanted steed

Runes scribed
Into his bones
By embers from a mystic fire
With emeralds for eyes

Summoned to life
By black robed priests
Under a full wolf moon

Reciting their creed to the night

Sent to spread fear
Fury & death

A dark cloud follows behind
Raining poison among the fields
Bringing sickness and disease

They are riding to slay the jester king
Leaving devastation in their wake

The king is ready
Though he the fool
Has gathered an army
Of fresh faced soldiers
Never battle tested

Poor souls never stood a chance

©James Dennis Casey IV

“Goblin Chef”

Another sleepless night alone
My eyes burning with hallucinations
Dancing shadows and little goblins
Traipsing across my bed sheets

One even tried to serve me lobster claw

Don’t ask me why

I stare at the ceiling tiles
Watching as miscellaneous shapes form
Like some creepy cloud animals in the sky

My mind is weary and unpredictable
After no solid sleep for three long nights
I can’t take much more of this

As these esoteric visions taunt me
They sing dark lullabies no one can fall asleep to
Eerie songs of bumps in the night
That serenade me into madness
Maybe I could sleep
In a padded room

When I close my eyes
And try to drift into dreams
I’m walking off the pier to nowhere
Falling into a bottomless pit
I get scared and they pop open

And sure enough
there he is again
Still trying to feed me lobster

I didn’t even know goblins could be chefs

©James Dennis Casey IV

“Cravings”

Colors of thoughts
Shadows inside
Not what I expected

Thoughts unreal
Not something unwanted
Something craved

Endless nights
Vast plains

Darkness

A black river
Runs through me
Inside my blood
Inside my thoughts

Cravings unheard of
Seem so wanted
Never driven away
Yet drawn closer

Some day soon
It will strike
Drowning conscience

My conscience

In a way I long for it
I wait patiently
Sitting up through the night
Wondering what is there
Not scared
In a way happy
Life is a candle
Burning until it goes out
What is after that?
Nothing?

What about all the cravings?

Existences
Known only to you

The black river flows faster
Becoming more fierce
In it’s own way gentle
Then the creature awakes
As the river drowns me
Taking me to where I belong

To satisfy the cravings

©James Dennis Casey IV

“Tripped the Light Fantastic”

A cosmic rendezvous
At the Devil’s Thumb
A real seedy bar & grill
On the south side of the Milky Way
With aliens from X Nibiru

They demanded to speak with the manager
Because their meat was undercooked
Mine was just fine
But then
Of course
I was high on space junk

The pink is better than the yellow
Good shit
The manager man
If that’s what you would call it
Arrived at our table
With pug dog eyes
Protruding from a
Thumb-like head
Speaking in clicks & whistles

My friends shot him on the spot
Killed him dead

They all laughed
I laughed along
Even though my blood
Felt like jello

They threw a chunk of gold
On the table
Tipped the waitress
With some of the good shit
And we tripped the light fantastic
Down to the next bar

Gotta love those space gangsters
They keep it interesting for sure

©James Dennis Casey IV

See more art from Max at Max Alley : maxalley.org