Plague Doctor’s Ghost
written by: Christina Ciufo
@ChristinaCiufo
Poveglia’s belltower tolls –
ding-dong,
ding-dong,
ding-dong
its low, mele-colony, haunting chimes
echo through the abandoned asylum’s
windows and hallways,
veiled in earthly, olive-brown vines.
An inauspicious shadow appears –
disquieting, saturnine,
and iniquity, standing
at the bricked, archway door.
Moonlight peers through
the decrypted ceiling,
caressing upon
the shadow’s face –
revealing his cracked, pallid
plague doctor’s mask,
with gelid, glass eyes
reflecting irreligiousness,
depravity, and madness.
He dawns
a white doctor’s coat,
long, transparent, and tattered,
smeared with dried blood,
grave soil, and seaweed,
seeking his patients’ spirits.
Like a crow flying
through a churchyard,
he roams throughout
yellow, vine-covered corridors,
while a surreptitious aroma
of sulfur, juniper berries, myrrh,
and sea salt water follows.
Disembodied wails
echo trepidation and anguish,
sensing his oppressive,
dark presence.
The belltower tolls –
ding-dong,
ding-dong,
ding-dong,
the plague doctor’s ghost
dissipates into gray mist
while its eerie, sepulchral chimes
in sync with the spirits’ wailing
echo across the Plague Island.
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