Summer Solstice by Mike Rader

The abbey bell tolls
soundlessly.
Who can hear its
solemn chimes?
In the ancient ruins,
mist seeps around broken walls,
and monks in cowls
arise from lost wintry graves,
wending their way to
midsummer chapel.
Faith still beats on these
blood-drenched stones.
“Forgive our oppressors,”
they chant,
“for the hounds of hell
will not.”

James Aitchison is an Australian author and poet.  As Mike Rader, he writes horror and noir fiction and poetry.  His work has twice appeared in Black Poppy Review, as well as Horror Tree (Trembling with Fear), Thriller, Akashic Books (Mondays are Murder) and many other magazines and anthologies.