New Work: Mourning Rites

So yes: The Audient Void # 7 is now out and about, including work by Ashley Dioses, KA Opperman, Adam Bolivar, John Shirley and my own twisted self, among many others - the black and white artwork by Dan Sauer is worth the cover price alone. "Mourning Rites" is a charming little ballad, if I do say so myself, based upon my reflections on just how curious some death customs were in Victorian England. Especially those which applied to women.

If I should keep a lock of hair
wound tight within a cameo,
what should you think but I compare
all suitors to one lost below?
You would console me as I grieve,
not dreaming that I might believe
you culpable. Why should you care
what weird this token may bestow?