Two Friday the Thirteenth Poems

November 13, 2015
By Alexis Faulkner 

The scariest thing to happen to me today

On this unlucky Friday

I’ve been possessed

Listening to a classic house mix playlist

Pause, tilt head right, thought mist disperse

Glance up and to the right to an earlier fall-spiced night

This same month, sure

Sitting on the stoop with a visitor

Visitor II came past us, but with their own key

Said, formed the words, as form in him human,

“Don’t worry, I’m just the night mailman.”

Sure, I thought, nothing to see here

Turned the key to the left and pushed the door open

Our apartment, the door

It’s tricky and it’s not like they were new to the task

My eyes didn’t close like Brautigan’s did

Because, in fact, I’m still not in California

My stoop is in a seasonally affected zone

Where people of the post office act on a different code of ethics

A code all their own and full of fright

Good thing he wasn’t delivering on a Friday the 13^th

Perhaps then he would have deposited anthrax in our box

Which love is, to reference another dry moment in time

Hopscotch
by Douglas Slayton 

that black cat kept me warm
in every storm and frozen evening
the windows wouldn't close

salt on my shoulder
won't dispel that hex
i picked up some winter

i can't cross a street or portal
anymore with that luck i carry
i wanted to make this right
but it's all wrong

i can't look them in the eye anymore
every room, every street,
where everyone else stands close
i see them looking
like they can smell it on me



[found the image here]

Alexis Faulkner is Executive Editor-in-Chief of Uncanny Valley Magazine. 

Doug Slayton is Professor Editor-in-Chief of Uncanny Valley Magazine.

FRIDAY THE 13TH

by Alexis Faulkner

Originally, I planned to make a fact sheet for this unholy Friday, but eventually it became evident that the best way to celebrate is with song, so I made a playlist. The bite-sized chunk of info below will give you a tiny historical foundation concerning the significance of this day.

Triskaidekaphobia, as defined by Joey from Friends

Friggatriskaidekaphobia: fear of Friday the 13th

Paraskevidekatriaphobia: fear of Friday the 13th

Theories on the unluckiness of the number 13 concern Christianity, numerology, and norse mythology.

From an article in National Geographic in 2004, founder Donald Dossey of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina traces "the fear of 13 to a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. 'Balder died and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day,' said Dossey. From that moment on, the number 13 has been considered ominous and foreboding. There is also a biblical reference to the unlucky number 13. Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest to the Last Supper."

ENJOY! 

Alexis Faulkner is Executive Editor-in-Chief of Uncanny Valley Magazine