Hallow's Harbinger
by Christina Ciufo
You hear thunder pounds in fours.
Crows serenade a melancholy.
Density rolls with the autumn cold.
Fire crisps the leaves all the while cricket strum their legs with the wind.
He gallops through the dirt road and leaves rising from the ground.
Silence broken by cackling, echoing in the forest.
Harbinger’s stallion accompanied by two charcoals piercing through the black
of night. Phantoms full of swiftness, closer and closer seeing the scorching jack-o-
lantern. Reaching for sanctuary at the wooden channel you try, but don’t make haste
against this harbinger of the wood. Your heart slows and your body wrapped in soil.
His fiery touch scorches the vertebra, while he gallops away into the night.
About Christina
Christina Ciufo is a passionate writer of poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and fables; she is completing her first novel. From a young age, she always had a passion for writing stories and poems, specifically fairytales, folklore, supernatural, and horror. She enjoys writing about these genres in various forms because she believes that telling stories about supernatural forces evokes a haunting and terrifying imagination that brings joy and fright. After graduating Sacred Heart University with a BA in English, she continued to expand her writing abilities at Manhattanville College’s MFA Creative Writing Program and by May 2017, graduated with an MFA degree in Creative Writing. She has recently completed Sacred Heart University's Education Program in December 2018 with a MAT in Teaching in both elementary and secondary and is currently a Sunday School Teacher at St. Timothy's. She has appeared in Gravitas, Spillwords, Ovunque Siamo, Nymphs I Writers and Vamp Cat Magazine.