Written by Joseph Hope

Locked like the passage of rite,

the gates of the underworld

won’t open unless you have lost the key

to the door of the living.

Crawl under your skin and

you will find the backdoor to the temple

of the three beautiful black sisters

braiding  their hair to keep score

of the stray souls that have stared

at their beauty and begged

never to return back

to the land of the living.