To Margaret
You have seduced me and I can no longer escape
Your beauty is beyond compare
So banish me from your sight
Before I can no longer rhyme
Or write? Or scribble nothing but nonsense?
But I will cease
To write is release - not gain
The Tell-Tale Heart
It was true and I was so very nervous. But would someone walking down the street think I am mad? The disease had only sharpened my senses, not dulled them. My hearing had become acute. I could hear all of heaven and all of hell. How, then, am I mad? Dammit! Don't I look healthy? Just see how calmly I tell you the whole story.
I really don't know how or why the idea entered my brain. But once it was there it haunted me day and night. It was a passionless impulse. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me or insulted me. I didn't even want his money. But it was his eye. Like a vultures. Pale blue with a film over it. When that eye fell upon me, my blood ran cold; So, ever so gradually I made up my mind to deceive the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.
At this point you probably think I'm crazy. Crazy women know nothing. But you should have seen it. You should have seen how calm and cautious I was as I sexily swung my hips back and forth like a pendulum. I was especially kind to the old man the week before I carried out my plan. I smiled sweetly when I saw him. I wore shorter skirts and revealing blouses. And thereafter, and every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it. I laid brick upon brick. Globs of wet cement splattered on the floor, until I left an opening big enough for my own head.
(In progress. More on the way)
YOU ARE READING
Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe
PuisiI have reworded and put my own spin on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. I started reading Poe at a young age and have always been able to connect to his voice and style, even as a woman. He is one of my favorite poets by far.
