Parasomina

Tall tales abound that strange things happen at the full moon.
Any doctor will tell you: when the moon is full, all hell breaks loose.
If night never ended we would hardly recognise what we become,
succumb to sleep’s inexorable pull, let your mouth slack and be done.

Tall tales abound that strange things happen at the full moon.
He starts punching, desperately, and repeatedly;
if night never ended we would hardly recognise what we become,
let your mouth slack and be done.

He starts punching, desperately and repeatedly;
dreamed of trying to save a child, only to wake,
his fists making deep impressions in the mattress.
“Ill met by moonlight. I’m not going back in there,” she said.

Let your mouth slack and be done, succumb to sleep’s inexorable pull;
if night never ended we would hardly recognise what we become.

Rhea Seren Phillips is a PhD student at Swansea University. She is studying how Welsh poetic forms and metre could be used to reconsider, engage and accurately represent the changing cultural identity of modern Wales. She has been published in Molly Bloom, Cheval 10, Cultured Vultures, Writing Times and The Conversation. She runs Grandiloquent Wretches, a Patreon page that combines poetry, art and audio. Read other articles by Rhea Seren.