The smoky air coalesces to a point

Stretching against the frame of your body

Pulling you into the abyss

To look into its eyes is to look into yourself

The emptiness of nothingness

Cloaking the world against the light

These obsidian jewels glinting in its contrast

Shimmering on the edges.

They start to shift and morph,

Twisting and snapping at their hinges

The pandora’s box unstitching itself from the seams

These shadows; they walk across the sparse landscape

Slicing the world into round cylinders of darkness

They grasp their fingers around

The hearths of the known world.

Listening to stories of their pasts