Krampus’ Howls
written by: Christina Ciufo
Italian Alps
as still and reverent
as monks processioning
into the church’s pews
for Christmas Eve Mass,
stand over the village,
shawled in transparent, gelid snow
and inauspiciousness.
Golden-pallid candlelights upon
the windows become dim –
their wicks burnt.
Reverent, elegant
words of “O Holy Night,”
become faint, like a phantom.
Sleigh bells, eldritch
and settled, chime across
the village, while the cold wind bellows.
Their chimes becoming
louder,
louder, and
louder –
the wind and bells portentously cease.
Silver metal chain,
long and torrid,
slithers across the snow, like a serpent
seeping from Hell’s cracks.
Ebony, torrid cloven hooves,
hoofbeat against
the alps’ snow-covered
arduous, charcoal skin.
Clip-clop,
Clip-clop,
Clip-clop.
Krampus’ howls,
irreligious and unsettling, echo
down the alps, across the village,
and into each chimney,
hearing an unhallowed Christmas hymn.
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