Robber Bridegroom's Widow, Ellen Huang

CW: blood, violence

What to do with the corpses

Once the warlock himself is stew?

These are the preserved remains

Of other brides like you.

The bride recoiled at blood and guts

Twisted the golden ring

Upon not her own wedded finger

But the dismembered poor thing.

For a second, though, she held it

How strange, a touch so light

Could summon weight of evil

Numbness, alternating fright.

The surviving bride returned not

To the house with stews made from sin

She had trails of lentils and stories

But nothing to save from within.

Someday she'd like to get married

And former victims, her bridesmaid team

But for now, she stares at the stew and waits

For someone to tell her this is all a dream.

previously published in Bleached Butterfly.

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Ellen Huang (she/her) is published/forthcoming in Wretched Creations, Love Letters to Poe, Bowery Gothic, Ghost City, Grimoire, Bleached Butterfly, Sirens Call, Prismatica, Vamp Cat, and more. She is currently working on an asexual horror anthology and a fairy tale chapbook. For her fantasy-inspired creative work, follow: worrydollsandfloatinglights.wordpress.com.