(St. Valentine’s Penumbra)
by Oliviu Crâznic
Back in her holy chamber of secrets, lust and sin,
She plays for me the Maiden, the Goddess and the Queen;
Mélange of scarlet flowers, she blossoms in my arms
And offering me pleasure, she’s gambling with her chance.
Fireheart and frozen tears, Angel of Passion rules the game…
Bleeding on your naked body, I am whispering your name;
In the mists of our ardor, I kneel down, you rise above:
Let me taste your heaven, darling: I am praying to thy love.
And for one single divine hour, be my shameless Valentine…
If our souls shall burn in fire, may the blame be only mine;
Flesh against flesh and mouth to mouth, writing your lovespells on my lips:
„The velvet scarf to tie my hands!” – the candle dies and Virtue sleeps.
Waterfalls of golden hair… in your eye I see delight!
My nymph lures me to her altar, I’m in love but she’s not quite;
I fondle her shapely wonders – who’s the panther, who’s the dove?…
Set the trap for me, my dear: you are preying on my love.
In our bed of guilt and roses, now she gasps in my embrace,
Murmuring sweet words of sorrow, placing kisses on my face;
She betrays to save our friendship, to my heart she holds the key…
I never fail to bring her pleasure – she never fails to harm me.
About the author:
OLIVIU CRÂZNIC (b. 1978) is a Romanian writer, literary critic, poet, translator, anthologist and 
legal advisor. He published the Gothic novel …And Then The Nigthmare Came At Last (Vremea Publishing House, 2010), described by M. Pricăjan (in the celebrated cultural magazine Familia) as “The Walpole Moment in Romanian literature”. He was labelled as “Mr Gothic” in More Family Chronicles (Limes Publishing House, 2014), a book written by a famous literary critic, the recently knighted for “Cultural Merit” M. Opriță. He further published short stories and novelettes (most can be found in the special edition volume The Witching Hour, 2015, Crux Publishing House), very well received by the critics and the public. He is a contributor of various celebrated anthologies and magazines, alongside important names of the classic (Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Rudyard Kipling, H.P. Lovecraft, George MacDonald, Guy de Maupassant, Saki) or contemporary (George R.R. Martin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Paolo Bacigalupi, Ian R. MacLeod, John Shirley) universal literature. He won numerous national and international prizes (2011 Galileo Best SF&Fantasy Volume Award, 2012 European Society of Science Fiction Eurocon Encouragement Award, 2015 RomCon Best Article Award etc.). He was a Bucharest International Literature Festival 7th Edition (2014) moderator (for The Science Fiction Evening, special guests: Richard K. Morgan and Paul J. McAuley) and a Final Frontier Bookfair 4th Edition (2015) special guest.
Author’s Official Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/oliviucraznicofficialpage/?pnref=lhc
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