Haunt of Thieves: part four
Haunt of Thieves
Part Four
Ravens hear the trembling gong’s alarm
Harbinger of rolling earth
Far away as yet but coming near
(Birds of the air may take to flight
Men and cities cannot do)
Souls they carry heavenward, on each feather tip
The lost descends to touch in parting
A temple of her beloved
Her fingers brush and cling to
His brow as a cobweb might
Lightning flares behind closed eyes
A momentary flowing together in exile
Of ghost
And death-in-life
She speaks before the whirlwind takes her
In spirit-language of old awakened sights
Demons they have imprisoned in a maze of circled lines
Etched by knife
Gafeidda can only trace the path again
Here is the short lieutenant with his grin
He holds a bottled soul in an outstretched hand
“Even the way in which our goddess carves the land
Proves us conquerors…we are invulnerable and Destined
and you
Like a fly hatched in an empty barn
Beat at the window while the sun glares—
The way is barred
You waste your time and the Shepherd knows”
These men are watchers and have seen
The sated flood below them roar
Where limbs of the floating dead
Entangled form a foaming raft
Of maggots shadowed by a trailing swarm
And this horror thrills the lieutenant
He feels that she favors his side, has chosen
A lofty place for them above the squalor
Their magic thus the stronger
The Shepherd where the path
Descends no lower
Shrouded there waits by the pillared stone
Toothed and tapered like a broken axe-head
And his face is white like bone
This rock he calls Aantahah—Ancient Father
His hand is raised and his eyes see nothing
Haunt of Thieves
Haunt of Thieves (part five)
Milieu
(2015, Stephanie Foster)