the silk farmer

Best listened to with headphones/earphones. Eyes closed.

the silk farmer is a short horror/fairy tale about an interdimensional entity and what they do for a living.

This liminal being is inspired by tales of “hags,” who are typically the villains in stories, making horrific deals, potions, and games that are particularly dangerous to children.

I love hags.

This work was short-listed in the Ghost, Fable, and Fairytale Prize for Fractured Lit in 2022.

A textural mixed media black and white painting of a face that is disturbingly half moth, half human. There's a gentle calmness about their bulging, insectoid eyes, as their face splits in half, revealing a proboscis. Painted by Malachi Lily, 2022.

Hags are a part of the crone archetype, the elder feminine energy that appears time and again in our stories. Patriarchal history has villainized this archetype; what is the use of feminine energy, of a person/woman, if they are not providing for a man/bearing offspring? Turn that energy into a villain, into a consumer of children—the anti-woman. Sometimes, you gotta eat some kids. Sometimes, an elder subjects the youth to a trial to catalyze their growth, even sacrificing their body so that the children can become heroes, grow, replace them. The Hag can help you develop or swallow you whole, both valuable.

This story is not about the hag sacrificing themself for a hero child.

This story is about death as transformation.

This story is about the children who are not the hero, who don’t “make it,” and what happens to them, at least in this case.

The story can be read here on my website.

I hope it haunts and delights you.

Writing, Performance, Art, and Direction by Me

Production and Music by Honey House Records

Content warnings: whimsical child death, reference to chattel slavery, reference to childhood neglect, protohuman body horror, cosmic horror