by Samuel J. Fox
The moon must be three quarters full. Jupiter must be on the horizon and Mars visible above the timberline.
You must drip, into a mason jar with two shots of moonshine, a single drop of your blood for fourteen days before the final phase of the moon.
Build a fire out of only dead, white birch wood. Let it burn full for nine minutes, one for every circle of hell.
You must imagine those you wish to drink with be around your side. Your incantation is as follows:
I know I have been found guilty of wanting. Return, I plead, for a drink. Let us
speak only of then. Let us speak only of our bonds. Let us speak only of the
truth the damned know. The world is the only beautiful place and we cannot stay forever, for forever belongs to the dead and beauty belongs to the living.
Pour the blood and moonshine on the fire.
Once the fire blazes, sudden and bursting, you will notice shadows join you beside the fire. They will take shape. They will be the dead friends you have missed and have thought of and loved in memory. They will not be wraiths, but full and pale but physical and tangible. You are allowed to touch them briefly.
You will sit with them and in the bag you have sanctified with sage, garlic, and lavender, you will pull out the rum and tequila.
You will have your friends in the darkness until the last hour of the night. You will drink, all of you drunk, all of you present, though some only temporary. When you wake, they will have returned to hell. You will be hungover, but temporarily reprieved of sadness.
You may only do this once a year; for the damned have much toil and work and
their own lives to live forever infernal. Forever belongs to the dead and beauty belongs to the living.
When the moon is full, turn the soil and leave an offering to the damned: a burnt letter of thanks will do.
Samuel J. Fox is a bisexual poet and essayist living in the Southern US. He is poetry editor at Bending Genres LLC and has been published in many online and print journals. Find Samuel on Twitter @samueljfox or at a coffee shop, graveyard, dilapidated place in Statesville, NC.
