“STARS UPON THE NIGHT” is a dark lyrical narrative poem that blends elements of confessional poetry, folk balladry, and Southern Gothic storytelling. The tone is mournful, suspicious, and emotionally bruised, carrying an undercurrent of betrayal that deepens as the speaker wrestles with a particular woman’s dishonesty and the collapse of trust. The voice is one of the poem’s greatest strengths: intimate, rhythmic, and musical, with the refrains giving the piece a song-like cadence that reinforces obsession and emotional fixation. The poem’s strongest qualities are its memorable repetition, evocative phrasing, and ability to sustain tension between accusation and uncertainty. Particularly effective is the contrast between cosmic imagery and raw colloquial bitterness, which gives the poem emotional texture and originality. As a newly written poem for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, it has not yet been assigned to a chapbook.
“STARS UPON THE NIGHT”
molly swore me to her secrets
and shackled to this dark request
i hear her
spinning gold, a treasure chest
of circumstantial evidence
i hear her
molly told me, but molly lied
she told me she told him goodbye
i saw what i saw, but still she denies
molly told me, but molly lied
what, by god, is wrung from right
how many tears to blur the sight
the fates pin stars upon the night
distant so, can’t taste the light
and even though she told me so
she has lost my trust, i fear
i keep her basted in my doubt
the things she wanted me to hear
molly, molly, sugar cain
she roams the darkest depths, unchained
what good a man, de-balled, de-brained
even she, herself can’t say
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