“SILVER SPADE” is a brief but highly atmospheric gothic invocation that reads like a ritual chant or fragment of forbidden scripture. The tone is reverent, ominous, and ceremonial, while the voice adopts the cadence of an incantation, using repetition and command to create hypnotic intensity. One of the poem’s greatest strengths is its economy: with very few lines, it establishes a mythic landscape populated by devils, torches, graves, and moonlit ritual. The repeated references to light and darkness create a layered symbolic tension between revelation and destruction, wisdom and damnation. The poem succeeds through rhythm and atmosphere more than narrative, demonstrating a strong instinct for sonic repetition and gothic mood-building. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, this poem appears in the “First Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.
“SILVER SPADE”
behold,
beelzebub,
be still,
behold
the old fool
on the ancient hill
behold,
if you will,
in the light of his torch
the souls he’s enlightened
and the souls
that he’s scorched
be still,
beelzebub,
behold,
though the dark of the night,
in the light of the moon,
on a garden’s grave
a silver spade
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