nosferatu

I

a jolt of red in a silent movie
blue-tinted shots of daytime
white wall & black hole

the hammock of the dead sailor
keeps on swinging

let us smear ash on our nightgowns

 

II

nose hooked & taloned fingers
ears pointing to bucked teeth
a wardrobe full of cloaks & voids

a mother lets the lid of a chest
slam over her child

throw sand in my eyes if i’m awake

III

the sound of sliced cabbages
shadows painted on the floor
brick façades & blunt gables

a swarm of rats follow a lone woman
wherever she sleepwalks

all bedsheet ladders lead to you

Italo Ferrante (he/him) is a queer poet who earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Warwick. To date, his work has been selected for publication by Poetry Salzburg, Impossible Archetype, Cardiff Review, Sage Cigarettes, Inflections Magazine, Lighthouse, and Orchard Lea Press. Recently, his poem ‘Ode to Abruzzo’ has been shortlisted for the Oxford Brookes’ International Poetry Competition (2022).