By Behenian benison
hellebore’s hex,
high-winking ghoul star —
by thy light sanity unspools.
Unlucky, ill-omened,
glint of reanimate
eye in tomb –-
by thy flutter
bones are gnawed
at sepulcher’s maw.
Medusa’s decapitated
head
by Perseus borne,
thy demon-glare her eye:
Catastrophe’s flare,
red with were-fire,
blue with dread.
Algol! Thou scar & scare the sky –-
beacon of necropoli,
by thy grim Lamp alone
dead of ages restless ply.
Algol!
Star of corpse & crypt,
of coffin-mold &
catacomb –-
of candles of cadaver-wax
thou art the lucent wick.
With Sirius
thou vie for
dominance: for
madman’s devotion.
High summer his reign,
thy domain Winter’s
wrath & torpid motion.
Algol –- friend to the dead,
but luckless to living souls –-
thou preside in cairn-yard,
holes fresh-dug & ready to lend –-
for all graves empty
as the worm’s craw distends.
Algol!
Warden of war,
of unruly passions reaped & sown:
It is said thy stare
will one day strike the whole Cosmos
to stone.

[Scott J. Couturier is a writer of the grotesque, pagan, & darkly fantastic. His poetry & prose began appearing in literary journals & anthologies in 2017 – venues he has contributed to include The Audient Void, Spectral Realms, Eternal Haunted Summer, Hinnom Magazine, & Weirdbook (forthcoming). His fiction has been repeatedly featured in the Test Patterns & Pulps anthologies from Planet X Publications.]