Sludge
White was sailing a subliminal sea,
gliding
on a surface that glinted like glass.
her
memories were ranged like sleeping mountains,
their
colors cascading in a slumbering pass.
she
was vaguely aware of all that transpired
seen
through a cloistering filter of crepe,
and
tried to decipher what could have prompted
misfortune
to open its snarling gape.
her
fur-clad familiars found her fallen.
a
dubious heartbeat convinced them she was dead.
though
ashen pallor bedimmed her glimmer,
a
pink glow illumined the roses on her head.
as
the deer nudged her with their probing noses,
an
eerie wailing was let loose by a loon.
then
a chorus of keening fused with the storm
in
a howling lament that beckoned the moon.
it
rose in the midst of turbulent flashes,
in
shafts of fluorescence and gleam-tinted cloud.
and
the fell fog was pummelled by pelting rains,
forging
wispy tatters out of steaming shroud.
the
skittish fire that Sappy had set
crackling
in the shelter of prehistoric stones,
was
encouraged by the flickering moonlight
fostering
warmth in their chilled and dampened bones.
as
he rocked Mock in a cradle of compassion
the
skies spilled out their spurting, silver sheets,
and
he lulled the delirious ramblings
of
anxious adolescence roaming lonely streets.
Mock
closed his eyes when the winds subsided,
and
the deluge dwindled to intermittent drip.
as
the moon traipsed off in search of perspective
Sappy
hunkered down for a cursory kip.
Sleazy
came to in a foul smelling cavern
steeped
in the silence that saturates night,
wrestling
with his wrapping and scuffing the scrapes
he'd
acquired from the spider's frantic flight.
he'd
barely discerned the subtlest shuffle
when
a presence emerged an inch from his face.
for
a heart-stopping moment he felt it musing.
then
it ripped apart his slithery case.
already
running as his feet touched down
they
kept on kicking when he found he'd been lifted.
but
sharp, spindly limbs simply spun him around
and
placed him in a spot where starlight drifted.
he
embraced the bathed air like a stifled child
imbibing
the breezes that bring in spring,
and
hardly held on to the side of the cliff
skipping
and slipping and nearly taking wing.
in
a nearby nook a pair of plump pigeons
snickered
together as they watched him flit by.
and
having made certain he hadn't been followed
one
of them mounted the star-dappled sky.
Promethean
pilgrims crossed the frozen expanse
transcending
time from their fiery birth,
ferrying
sparks of elemental essence
to
the evanescent residents of earth.
and
the harpy scowled and brandished her fist
irked
at these heavens and their meddlesome rains
for
making short work of banishing enchantments,
dispelling
the mist she'd swelled with such pains.
she
pressed the edge of a crumbling tombstone
and
vanished beneath the cemetery grounds,
slinking
down a subterranean passage
that
echoed with crunches and gurgling sounds.
the
snooping rat waited with the royal raiments
in
the blaze of a torch that scorched the stone.
he
smirked as she donned her crinkled crinolines
tickled
by the gilding of a wrinkled crone.
pausing
on the threshold of a caved-in temple
she
tossed a bone to a pale, hulking brute,
ensconced
in the stench of previous suppers
stiffening
in piles, rotting with their loot.
his
lopsided face seemed to come unhinged,
as
he strived for a wink with his single, crazed eye.
wrenching
her foot from a trail of slime, she said
"try
and be more tidy, this place is a sty."
his
muttered response had a whiny, cringing tone,
too
shrill and unnerving to closely heed.
in
any case Her Grace hastened away,
unable
to process another creature's need.
while
the snitch raced after his merciless mistress,
skirting
rivulets of travelling blood;
the
ghoul yanked a morsel from his stacked up stiffs,
relishing
the squish and the sickening thud.
when
the queen laid her head on her pillow
she
had fully restored her avaricious gleam;
repacking
her bags, unfolding her furrows,
and
easing her creases with vanishing cream.
the
restless impatience in her withering stare
regained
its callous, imperious bite.
and
the scathing disdain chiseled on her visage
waxed
incandescent, transcendent with spite.
while the glittering tresses nestling her
brow
securely stashed her thatch of hoary
bristles,
her careless caress lost its resemblance
to catching a cat in a thicket of
thistles.
a sneer paved over her gravelly cackle,
thus smothering the rattling gates of
hell.
and she'd managed to ditch the whiff of
corpses
that raised up hackles with its
mouldering smell.
as she sorted her fleeting perceptions
splicing her reels of selective
recollection,
a pesky image refused to flip past
obstructing this nearest approach to
reflection.
a casual glimpse of the hidden chamber
imprinted while primping her ribbons and
lace,
reared up to pose a compelling question
for a valued possession was not in its
place.
she passed at last with her drifting
impressions
to the plundered landscape of overmined
seams,
never quite sating her expectations
the recurring resort of her ravenous
dreams.
when the answer came suddenly upon her
she loosed her link to the ethereal lair.
and vaulting across the breach of
becoming
she sat up and gasped "the mirror wasn't
there!"*** * *** * *** * *** * ***
- Evan Hawthorn, the 23rd of April, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment