Gregor Wakes / When Aidoneus Fastened His Fate to Mine by Carrie Farrar

Gregor Wakes

He dreamed of trains
and woke to legs
that twitched like wires.

The sun was already
creeping across
his insect shell—
as if nothing had changed.

He tried to speak,
but the words dripped
from his mandibles
like rotted fruit.

Behind the door,
his sister’s voice
was still kind,
but already dimmed
by the weight
of what he had become.

He was still him.
But no one believed him.
And that
was worse than the body.

So he crawled beneath
the couch,
where dust gave
no judgment.

And listened
as the world
rearranged itself
to forget him.

When Aidoneus Fastened His Fate to Mine

He raised a castle of granite, stone on stone,
and within its echoing halls I wandered
my steps unbound.

His first words were low heat and iron:
Your history ends here. Nothing follows pain.

He coaxed the dark to bloom in veils:
branches trembling, lunar hush,
whole galaxies breathing above us,
believing I would learn to sleep in such radiance.

He sought out my rage; it rivaled his.
My attachment to the light beleaguered him.
So he seduced me until I became his.

Then I met you
and our demons embraced,
chanting the same lies.

You hardened fast
and soon he seduced you, too.

Through shadows you groped,
sharing Persephone’s fate,
your soul exposed to the empty winds.

I saw you shift
skin to ember, ember to ash,
fingers lengthening into ivory shards
glimmering with hunger.

We became beasts,
feasting on each other’s kindness
until we were bone and sinew.

Thrown into shadow,
our bodies crawled,
seeking the sun of suns.

I moved with predatory patience,
weaving webs of shadow disguised as light,
wanting you to see in me
the things you most despised.

For I am a sculpted mass of thorns,
the only extinct creature
in Earth’s bleak bestiary,
forging my own path

through its false mythology.

Carrie Farrar is a Los Angeles poet writing about ruin, resilience, and the strange beauty in what breaks. Her work explores trauma, neurodivergence, and devotion, driven by image, lyric pulse, and a desire to name what others turn from.