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 Apr 2020 Kvothe
Qualyxian Quest
Tolkien in my Ohio childhood
    And Oxford, twilight blue
     Frodo lives! Frodo lives!


       And Gandalf riding too.
 Apr 2020 Kvothe
unsxfe
Metal
 Apr 2020 Kvothe
unsxfe
I
  see
    twisting
  waves
of
  metal
    bending
  in
every
  direction


          LINES
GLYPHS  ANGLES
          SHAPES
  w  s  i  g
T  i    t  n

turn
     i
     n
     g

in EVERY DIRECTION
DIRECTION
  DIRECTION
    DIRECTION
      Direction
        direction

I stop in my tracks.
Am I the only one seeing this?

I scream.

"HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP! MY NAME IS [Redacted.], I AM A REAL PERSON! PLEASE HELP ME! HELP ME!!!"

Black.


Tindalos.
Don't even ask what the inspiration for this one was. Not even I know.
You cried me a cage
or I did
until I stood behind bars
each metal rod a
feeling that wouldn’t
blossom in my breast
or one growing
in yours.
Freedom is a hairpin
******* a lock, but
it sure as hell ain’t
running away. I
had a dream
last night
standing at your
door, banging out
too-late I-love-you’s
in Morse Code. You
didn’t answer. Nursing
your pain like
dying embers.
I’d like to swallow it whole
burn blood and fat
till it melts, though
it’s kinder this way
me on my side of the pond
East of yours.
Through tangled wight-lit
weald she wends, one hand
on veinous sword
For in this boscage
fiend does grow, in bile-
brimmed pustules nest.

Beware the night wood,
bladed lady, it’s paths
do twist and gambol
And hellions of the dim
do know its ev’ry
maze-cursed bent.


“Oh come to me!” she
sings out high, into
aphotic brake.
“My vein-sword fears no
devilry. No imp or
soul-baned blight.”

With ringing snick her
blade does flick, to warble
through the murk.
It’s long vein fills
with fiend-blood spilled
from conniving lurk.

Beware the night wood
bladed lady, though first
foe has fallen.
There are still miles
of treachery afore
you find your love.


The dim around her
quickly thickens, with
creatures best not named.
They have come squelching
from fetid pool, from
rotted bole and fen.

Too many for a
veinous sword swung by
skillful warrior,
though still she stands, her
shoulders square, to face
the squalling din.

“Halt!” Calls a voice of
crackling ice from grim
and toothy smile.
“I’ve come to proffer,
lady knight, a means
for your escape.

“Your maiden fair, within
my lair has pressed on
me a wager.
If in fair combat,
I take your life,
she’ll be mine forever.

“And if in turn I
am the one who falls
in ****** failure.
You’ll be hers till
end of time, your strength
ever greater.”

Beware the night wood,
bladed lady, and of
deals forged in the dark.
Though bound by word,
wise ones know, the Night King
can’t be trusted.


For quite a time the
lady hummed in careful
deliberation.
The night-king watched
motionless for her
tiny grim-faced nod.

Then with ringing snick
blades did flick, and warble
through the murk
and history’s greatest
battle was fought for
ghouls within the dark.

When the Night King fell
it was with
a subtle grin of triumph
As fiend applied a
black-thorn crown to
lady’s sweat-streaked brow.

The bladed lady
did achieve
her heart’s earnest goal.
She was wed, ‘neath
dripping bough to the
one she’d come to find.

But while in death, her
foe was free, she
could never leave.
From deepest copse
she still rules, Night Queen
of the night wood.
From murk-filled
depth, the unmaker—
little death from
which all sloth
does come—
rises
to squelch, slime-
smeared from left or
right ventricle up
capillaries to seat
of man, now
dethroned
immured to a
ribbed cage,
irons round
fatted calves, while
time-gorged with
leaps not taken,
the usurper burrows
fetid tentacles into
grey velvet folds, a
sort of un-
gyrification, each
parasite hook
best removed early
lest it become
entrenched.
This was written for a contest on another site. There were a few prompts to choose from, each one a quote from H.P. Lovecraft. I chose two:

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."

“ Do not call up that which you cannot put down."
 Apr 2020 Kvothe
Kirsten Claire
There are millions of stars
But we limit ourselves
To only a handful of constellations
To tell the stories
Of the sky

10/30/2019
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