This Aspen stands tall Branched over my head

Smelling faintly damp and sickly Sap runs down my fingers thickly They stick together It’s on my clothes Now my hair It’s everywhere

And lo… the earth Chasm-esque and opened Devours me and yards I fall Into a fetid, rotted chapel Black and brown and white with mold

Ahead, not far — A friar, a holy man? Greets me with gangrenous hymn Diseased ideals He offers penance But there is no forgiveness here Only roots

A hot pursuit with blaring blue The bank lies empty We bribe for silence (but there is no honor among thieves)

And now the rain breaks upon us Hot And brutal And unrelenting

Our tale is not uncommon For many choose to steal And even less choose death To live a life they feel

A Canon — The Old One’s ancient tome Her beauty calls them home All renounce their rest to please thy Lady

A Hymn — Her cantors’ putrid drone A foul alembic tone All rescind their rest to please thy Lady

A Curse — Flesh draped top broken bone Gaunt figures flayed and stoned All revoke their rest to please thy Lady

Lord knows The Lord’s nose Could smell the grief upon me A rank scent Like foul blood I’m covered head to knee

Search within A lamp A djinn Forgiveness through a genie?

Naught a wish But tempered action Naught frozen But fiery and steadfast Forgiveness, oh forgiveness Embrace thy present Release thy past

With careful gait, I enter — A great hall, banner strewn —

A Kingly Lion counts His coins with frenzied glare, in royal chair

He sees me And I, He

The rising fear inside me swells Red He sees, greed He smells, and fast He charges towards me like prey, like game

My icy blood, my frigid stance… they both ensnare me.

He tears, He mauls, He bites, He claws with unchecked rage with misused might He murders me (another night)

Tales are told of sirens’ call But what power do their pauses hold? What better fate To long for verse Or cast our ships to rocks?

A closest friend A haunting foe A soldier of infinity

A prison cell A place to flee A sanctum for eternity

If your hand could reach inside my heart What would you do with it?

Which path would you explore first, I wonder? The light The dark The love The pain Some vaults gilded, some naught to plunder

How much of me would be new to you? Would fortune await this crusade? I have buried much To protect your wayward crew

Choose well, your path and prizes With caution, calm, and care Do not lose yourself amidst the chaos there

You must come back With heart in hand Help chart my course And find dry land

Today I watched a spider weave Its complex web My eyes were wide

Its gentle care and loving spin How quickly made This house, a home

How has something smaller than A single moment Caught my human, judging, gaze Steel-like strings and perfect math The pattern made, it makes me ponder How can I, a conscious sloth Make that which is so uniform? Yet even after making’s end Each lattice, unique and rare Ever changing, patterns show Consistencies in gossamer

This simple construct points to flaws Within one’s self and mine as well To slowly move and build but rot Is nothing more than man’s free will A “mindless” beast has far surpassed Our laziness and faults of past (With beauty, dedication too) And makes up what it lacks in size With patience, perfection, and poison

The web destroyed and moved anew Today I’ll watch a spider weave Its complex web My eyes are wide

In the presence of presents A pall — A notion —

Each extinguishing breath deserves pause As a wish is made

Finite and special this day is Precious and fragile it is to hear Happy birthday dear —

There, the hill I laid upon And felt the moss and smelt the logs Still and sweet my thoughts back then

And now that meadow, lost to me It’s hazy — like a dream Lost maybe, but a part of this landscape

I’ll visit And lay again And feel the moss And smell the logs