Dust to dust, we all fall down  
Brushed aside and lost  
Ash to ash and ‘round and ‘round  
Just souls to fire tossed 
​  
He was a tall and handsome man  
And, oh, she heard him singing  
From the rooftops merrily  
Love’s fires with him bringing  
  
He said he was a chimney sweep  
And, oh, his beauty charmed her  
His coat was dark as raven’s wings  
His passion, it disarmed her  
  
His eyes were black as anthracite  
And, oh, his fire warmed her  
Her heart was stolen by the fae  
Though friends all tried to warn her  
  
In through her window he did dance  
And, oh he filled her nights  
Sylphid wings to bear her up  
And burn her with his might  
  
He had a devil’s fiery gaze  
And, oh his kiss was bold  
His lust was hot as any flame  
And yet his lips were cold  
  
And like a bird he flew away  
And, oh, the lies he whispered  
And when he took her everything  
He burned her heart to cinders  
  
Autumn nights too swiftly pass  
And, oh, the price was steep  
For when the fires had burned out  
She lay buried six feet deep  
  
old shadows
growing cobwebs
squeak of a bat

NOTE: Unitalicised text is the work of Edward Cates. Italicised text is the work of Anna Cates. ​

My lover is a graverobber
I recall the taste of icy kisses
As the moonlight slithers slowly
Down porcelain smooth features  
Winds tousle iridescent plumage
And her eyes are always burning
Shining out of the plutonian void
Binary stars blazing in darkness
Her terrible gravity dragging me
Upward from the sepulchral void
Rousing me from my baleful repose
To mount up and fly like she flies
My heartbeat, the cadence of wings
Bearing me up like a chthonic dream
A caliginous angel soaring skyward
Raven wings beating down the sky
For her voice has beckoned me
I rise and join her murder
 
twilight . . .
the melancholy color
of complicity

NOTE: Unitalicised text is the work of Edward Cates. Italicised text is the work of Anna Cates. ​

About the authors:
The late Edward Dana Cates (2/23/69-11/12/23) was a disabled househusband and writer/poet from Seymour, Indiana.  He attended George Fox University and served on Deviant Art’s literature committee, where he acquired many mutual fans and friends.  The original versions of his poems are fully illustrated a viewable at his online gallery:  https://www.deviantart.com/barosus/gallery.

Dr. Anna Cates teaches writing, literature, and education online and has published a variety of books (poetry, fiction, and drama) through www.cyberwit.net, prolificpress.com, redmoonpress.com, and wipfandstock.com.  Her full-length poetry collection, Love in the Time of Covid, won an Illumination Book Award.  She resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two cats.