Fixated
on your cold embrace,
and the comfort of your calculated whispers,
coaxing me into your paradise;

Enveloped
by your delirium;
Your toll exact:
Release by ruination.

I wander between worlds,
Each one as before:
Vast and vacant,
Save for a lake
And you;

I cheat and shirk my bonds along the edges of your mastery,
But your grasp is
Inescapable;
Your perfect reflection stretched out before me

And in a maddened frenzy
I have drowned you a thousand times, and now once more;
Beneath the surface,
Your face serene;

You rise again,
A smile etched between your cheeks,
Sinister by design,
For it is your turn now.

Five feet down in an open box,
a twinkle from the set of sleeping figurines caught my eye
They were animals -an assortment
of dogs, horses, hippos and all.
A silver cat, emerald eyes embedded,
midst a golden throng.
I touched it;
It was warm, not like the others
It shivered and alive it came, snagging
my skin on a razor claw
as it leaped to run on four then two.
She passed between this world and the next as if boundaries were nothing.
I dared to follow,
finding myself enveloped by the light of a winter sun,
the air cold and crisp,
the soft snow stinging my feet.
I sat beside her;
I glimpsed a jade version of me
as she smiled at this parallel paradise.
Her hand brushed my cheek and I laughed
at a touch so kind and delicate.

Borne aloft on broken wings
among the Angels and Demigods, with a hand in mine;
eager eyes fixed upon our arrival to paradise;
and a song greeted us through sealed smiles.

At the mercy of that blissful hum and soft, feathered fingers on my cheek,
I fell into complacency.
The gates opened:

Angels and Demigods and Demons revealed,
skin, flesh and bone peeled away,
blistered tongues waved in the wind,
silent howls of madness echoed in time.

And at their mercy, I turned to see whose hand beckoned me;
a familiar face,
there stood Solitude.

Solitude, my old friend.

A newspaper in hand,
glasses on his nose,
he sat on his big blue chair,
with a carefree pose.

A fire by his side,
the commentator in his ear,
he'd pause his daily routine,
and change what's on his mind.

He'd greet me with a big
"Hello",
in a deep country voice,
lots of questions followed, all the while quietening Marty's gig.

I saw him in bed that night,
the mask of life around his mouth;
this time I greeted him with a big "Hello",
hoping he'd reply.

His eyes remained closed,
his hand in hers,
the sound of the commentator unquiet,
the newspaper at his bedside, untouched and exposed.

We met upon a fleeting chance
and grabbed it by its sail
A chance so slight and improbable,
it was surely set to fail
One hand tightened, the other outstretched
not far enough, yet my eyes could see,
between two soft, round cheeks,
a smile welcoming me
On a sea of clouds,
we passed through an ancient door
guarded by angels and demigods,
to dance in a foreign land, forevermore.

I see it in front of me,
those black orbs ready to swallow me whole
Must I face it?
Its arm reaches beyond the barrier,
its fingers curling around my neck
I turn, but my feet, somehow one with the clay mud,
are rendered immobile.
Tendrils snap at my limbs, latch to them and embed themselves deep within.

I see him beyond the broken barrier,
his eyes pointed towards the dimly lit ceiling, searching.
He cannot face me,
but I face him with my gaping maw,
ready to devour him whole