My sweet autumn kitten, how you’ve grown,  
Yet your silly face remains so small.  
It is what I find in you most charming;  
In fact, you are Prince Charming.  
Sun spots on my bed craze your little head.  
I wish I could have grabbed the sun from the earthly dome,  
Wrapped for you in a fuzzy towel.  
Your eyes would be as large as that of an owl,  
And all the radiant mice would perish in your paws,  
Your face, as always, still remaining small,  
Longing for the next adventure  
Or a thorough hibernation.

Joyous moments I bore witness to,  
To my happiness or utter sadness,
I will cherish deep inside.
They will keep me up at night,  
Robbing me of peace and calmness of my mind.  
Your warmth and wounds you wrought upon me,  
Slowly rising from my bed,  
Can I hold it just for five more minutes?  
This wish is granted by my ghostly caregiver.  
In time, I shall forget all but one thing:  
A blurred image of your face  
In a haze of moments we both witnessed.

I throw my heart into a kettle,  
It’s dripping blood from your beastly mettle.  
My hair I’ve woven in a broom—  
I guess, for you, I am no groom.  
I am scattering away all my stored gloom;  
My body parts and silly limbs are piled into a rugged cart.  
I am painting a new future with all my bile and lard—  
The rest of gruesome details and remains is up for sale.  
In my hands are both the reins.  

My boat is dabbling in uneasy waters;  
The crew is nestled in closed quarters.  
My first mate loiters in the galleys;  
We are sailing past the lands with misty alleys.  
Our spirit slowly rallies—  
The people’s tone no longer sallow.  
Recently, we’ve sunk our only gallow,  
The tides becoming ever shallow.  

Unwelcoming and rocky bay,  
Jungle pierced by gleaming ray—  
Is it real, or just antics of the fae?  
Our rejuvenation is but nigh.  
We’ve reached the coast just in time  
For the roaring autumn festival—  
Stalls and barrels bursting from produce.  
Nobody’s acting coy, quickly we deduce—  
Masks, silks, and fires in a wild dance;  
My mates have dropped their grimly stance.  

Ghostly visions plague my mind—  
Spirits of the carnival gently pat my back.  
Their demeanor I find kind.  
Is this all a fever dream?  
The chances are not so slim.  
What’s the catch?  
However, does it matter all that much?  
I feel I’ve opened up my grizzly hatch.  
At least I am finally at ease—  
That’s my hunch.

Little, large and tiny embers
Flew as if they’d grown their own feathers,
As flames erupted from my armchair leathers,
And long forgotten, left behind endeavours,
I am now standing near a man-made crevasse.

Feeling fire consuming my internal threshold,
Its painful lair,
Whilst emitting a strange glare,
My legs are shaking, and my hands and feet are bare.
I’ve no more knives and needles left to spare.

My potted roses have now withered,
The moment for I so long have lingered.
Their armaments in time became so dull,
Grinding my eternal thoughts into a lull.
The pain just never stops, I guess.
It doesn’t matter if their thorns sting less and less.

Her tender, warm and flower-scented head–
Oh, how I wish I could have pumped it full of lead.
And what of our dreams of an ascetic rural livelihood?
I reckon that moment you weren’t in the mood.
Us slowly splitting moisty birchwood logs.
Beloved, it seems it’s raining cats and dogs.
But now it’s nevermore;
I feel I’ve changed my history and lore
For this moment and evermore.

Or have I just repressed my need for gore?
A fairy meadow shaken to the core–
Before me the country house, I enter may not dare.
It is now derelict, in disrepair,
Winds sweeping through its crooked wooden stair.
I sense that deep inside she never even cared.

And I am crawling spitting blood and ash.
Fires burned my limbs into a pile of scorched flesh,
Life fleeting from my helpless carcass,
But now I have become Augustus–
Eternal city,
Our Rome I set aflame
With wood you brought, I know it isn’t fair,
Just as my radiant words fell into your ashtray.
I shall not lie,
Countless cats and dogs falling from the sky,
Of our beloved pets, corpses lying here and there.