Night Watch with Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey was a perfect mystery thriller for a warm summer night. Would I recommend?  Yes I would! 🤍 🍿

I started following abandonedhousetour on Instagram!  Crazy beautiful and haunting photos.  You can find me back on Instagram as well at jandarrowpoetry!  

Photo by @robinhudson1976

I am absolutely honored and would like to let you know that my flash fiction piece, My House, was selected for Sundress Publication Best of the Net 2023 by Black Poppy Review!!  Click the link below to read my story and other fiction/poetry from some fantastic writers published in this dark and beautifully haunting publication!

https://blackpoppyreview.blogspot.com/2021/10/my-house-in-woods-by-jan-darrow.html  

Whisper in the Woods

The forest path has fallen leaves

And smells of apples

Ripened in the trees.

On warm October days I’ve stood;

I’ve heard the whisper in the woods.

It murmurs low about the vines

But sound is stronger as it climbs

About the oaks and pines.

It speaks wisdom from the years;

Mother Nature’s clever.

Listen,

For all that she has understood

Is ours forever.

The woods are full of winter wood

Colors gold and gray,

And I’ll remember what I’ve heard

On warm October days.

Photo : Pixabay

From: Autumn Poetry: A Collection for the Season

 

Why am I so obsessed with Only Murders in the Building? Do I care who killed Bunny Folger?  Maybe it’s the fact that it’s winter when they filmed it - people wearing coats, gloomy skies. New York on dark depressing days. Or is it because one of the main characters is a Michigan native?  No!  It’s none of the above.  Only Murders in the Building is a murder mystery! I love murder mysteries! And I have a need to find out who Glitter Guy is!

The Dark

I.

   In the dark, there is someone at the top of the stairs.  But the only thing that can be seen for sure is the glowing tip of a cigarette.

   Meg is at a college party passed out in the grass behind the fraternity house. Her eyes open and she wonders how the moon can stay suspended. She smells cigarette smoke and looks up. The figure flicks the cigarette down the stairs. It burns her arm.

   She doesn't scream.

   She doesn't run.

   She puts the cigarette out with her shoe. Someday, she tells herself, she is going to learn how to smoke.

II.

   It isn't the darkness that wakes her but moaning from down the hall. Her roommate met someone earlier that afternoon in chemistry class.

   Someday Meg is going to be like that. That passionate. That scientific.

III.

   Blue lights illuminate bottles of liquor behind the bar. Outside, the Priscilla's sign glows red.

   Meg spends two hours drinking Zombies.

   She meets a guy under the No Smoking sign and pulls out a cigarette. He pulls out a lighter and lights it with a flick of his thumb. She remembers the sign and puts the cigarette away. Something falls to the floor.

   A button? A tooth? She isn't sure.

   The guy picks it up.

   She takes him home. Later that night in her room his thumb comes off in her hand, then his ear. A minute later his arm and two of his toes bounces across the wooden floor.

   Just Meg's luck. Body parts are falling off everywhere.

From The Blue Hour: Flash Fiction (Available on Amazon)

photo: Pixabay

 Could summer be any more beautiful than this?

Photo : Paul Meinke

 

"Moon" 

Shadow Print 🌙

Winter Poems: Building Sound is now available on Amazon! 

https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Poems-Building-Jan-Darrow/dp/B0B7588HB1

Sparkles! ✨