She moves like dusk
taking
human shape— a quiet, inevitable
dimming of the world,
not quite shadow, not quite light,
but a shiver that lives within.
Her skin carries a faint luminescence,
as though moonlight once kissed her
too hard
and never let go.
Yet beneath that soft glow,
her veins are rivers of night—
slow,
potent and starless.
Her eyes are the most telling thing about her—
opal-soft in stillness,
but when desire stirs,
they deepen into a red that feels
almost intimate,
as though she’s tasting your thoughts
before your throat.
Some nights she sits
on the roots of ancient trees,
listening as they whisper
her contradictions:
half-fae, night-borne daughter,
a promise and a threat.
Some claim her origin reaches back
to the first wound the universe ever made—
when darkness split open,
from that collision
came the lineage she carries
in her bones: an ancestry older than hunger.
Every scent of blood
is a dilemma.
Every glimmer of beauty
is a wound.
She longs for warmth
yet lives in the chill that birthed her.
And when she walks through the world,
the air itself seems to hesitate—
caught between opening as flower
or recoiling like prey.
If something so perilous
feels
this beautiful, what does that make
the ones who cannot look away?
Photo credits: Pinterest
Lisa hosts at dVerse where she invites us to write about creatures. I chose to create
my own – half-fae and half vampire. Come join us! 💛
Posted for Poetics: Creature feature @dVerse Poets Pub
18 Responses
I love your echoes between two worlds, Sanaa, and your creation of a half-fae, half vampire. I especially love the thought of moving ‘like dusk taking human shape… but a shiver that lives within’, and these lines:
‘almost intimate,
as though she’s tasting your thoughts
before your throat’;
and
‘She longs for warmth
yet lives in the chill that birthed her’.
My kind of creature!
Thank you so much, Kim 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
Sanaa, truly mesmerizing! You’ve written her into being. I love everything about this creature. This part grabs me, about those who behold her:
“caught between opening as flower
or recoiling like prey.”
Your final reflection is perhaps most haunting.
Thank you so much, Lisa 😍 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
(and thank you for the lovely prompt) 🥂
Very mysterious, Sanaa. A haunting creature! Well done!
Thank you so much, Dwight 😀 so glad the poem spoke to you 💄❤️
Autobiographic perhaps? I sure can’t look away! A wonderful write Sanaa
No, not autobiographic. Thank you so much, Eric 🙂 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Outstanding! I like how pain began with her wound.
Thank you so much, Reena 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
I love how you created a new creature from the myths, I can recognize some part of it that also exists in others… a creature so seducing and the way she ensnare is also a bit like succobus or hulder…. but still a unique individual driven by pain.
Thank you so much, Bjorn 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
So incredibly imaginative and atmospheric. All part of the shadowy worlds and the dark and chilly edginess of being this creature. ‘yet lives in the chill that birthed her’. Wow! Such a mix of words and phrasing that brings this creature into our minds.
Thank you so much, Georgina 😀 so glad the poem and its imagery appealed to you 💄❤️
Wow, this poem is so atmospheric! Amazing writing, Sanaa. I, too, like the lines about flowering and prey.
So subtle and yet so deep, Sanaa – “the first wound the universe ever made” and “If something so perilous feels
this beautiful, what does that make
the ones who cannot look away?”
I love it….
“half-fae, night-borne daughter,
a promise and a threat.”
Such a gorgeous sensual poem, Sanaa!
“not quite shadow, not quite light,
but a shiver that lives within.”
I love your descriptions of this shadow creature. She is intriguing!