Dr. Casenstein

We Create.

I hunch over the tattered composition book,
pen moving like a poisoned rat
in a room that smells of cheap whiskey
and stale cigarettes.

Paper rips under my palm,
coffee spilled across the page,
ink seeping like venom
from ambrosia,
each word snapping back,
rabid with intent,
waiting to either breathe
or kill me.

Electricity jolts through the ragged carpet,
and it smells like frankincense and sex.

The verbs begin to ache and twist first.
Nouns moan and drag across the lines.
Imagery and symbolism explode on the page,
hand in hand,
angels and demons,
hungry for air
and a place to call home.

It rises off the page,
all heartbeat and soul.
I feel for it,
bloody and naked,
a beast,
but I’m leery,
knowing it could heal me
or drag me into the abyss.

I step back from the desk,
hands wet and trembling,
like I’ve just opened a cage door
that knows my name.
The room feels smaller now,
walls breathing in and out,
and I already know I’ll do this again.
It’s who I am.
There isn’t even a choice.
Although it may ruin me.

Author's Note

Thank you to everyone who reads, listens, and keeps showing up here. The support matters more than you probably know.

I just dropped a brand-new long-form poetry reading on my YouTube channel raw, unfiltered, and straight from the same place these poems come from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?vJD_4EDxtGWU

If the work resonates, my books are available on Amazon.
Appreciate you all.
Thomas W. Case

Reviews

[Michael Sun Bear]

I think I have just met Hunter Thompson writing poetry! What a powerful poem! You actually made me a little fearful to resume writing myself. You have written a new classic illustration of the tortured writer. By the way, I have always wondered what the smell of frankincense was like. If you have experienced it, I am envious.

[Thomas W Case]

Thanks, my friend. I've smelled it in incense sticks. lol

[Rosie C]

This piece is a bit of horror fantasy.

I like it though. You have great choice on words. Stretches my mind to think deep.

I gain a sense of suffocation from the writer. Emotions are leaking out bit by bit. But it is tempted to spill rapidly onto the reader.

It’s surreal, questionable and insightful towards your dark inner thoughts.

[Thomas W Case]

Thanks, my friend.

[John the Baptist]

Dr. Casenstein, do you fear you've created a monster? I don't think it will kill you. You might even get paid well for it some day.

[Thomas W Case]

lol. Thanks, my friend.

[ThisSiteSucks]

I'd delete "Although it may ruin me."
It seems like a bad omen.
But that's just me.
You are great.

[Thomas W Case]

Thank you so much.

[red93]

Fabulous Thomas, a really nice twist and turn on the Frankenstein story, full of creative verve and angst. Exceptional ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️

[Thomas W Case]

I appreciate it. Thanks.

[BuzzyB]

Our inner world can be so exciting and frightening at the same time. To delve in it becomes addictive. This poem is very exciting and imaginitive. Written with such jolting passion! Loved to read it over and over again.

[Thomas W Case]

Thank you much.