The blood-drenched dreams entice luxurious,
incalculable warmth against a murderously-cold breath
the pinpricks of an origin hidden from plain sight
would not heal on these wrists
these scratches that were formed by someone-else’s
but mark the right of my face
where in the Gray was granted in ominous whispers

my Secret Name

when in the same
but in the cavern of my mind was lost, the very place
all along the furrows was I bereft of the Source;
as a fruit dessicated in the path of Torrid had lain

Argent wills form tears in the wall between Death and Dream
and its pale, silent guardians pushed and tried again

I look at myself once:

my skin slowed to a crawl and this body broke at angles into Five

Hypnotic was their voice:
the chanting rose to a fever pitch of absolution
thickness of cords and the tautness in such fashion
Stood I in the doorway of the Nexus,
these eyes shone in Hunger wide open
breaking free of the bonds that the Covenant had placed upon us
the rampage bottled within the very first
of a Thousand Evenings’ worth of lust

... an unwilling Vessel I shook with fury,
my feet I could no longer feel
my arms were serpents caught in the coils of each other
my skin shone with a gleam envied by the Sun!

... that I wore the bearings of the Masqued, yet in shame
without restraint walked about in the curse of daylight
with in the Grace of the Lord, and a love once lost
that I survived the Night of Unending Fire

the epilogue:

my mouth choked full on a river of blood;
as I spoke through the Flood
the world broke
The dream forsooth restored three of my wings
Her name was FIRE in my eyes
the second I was slain
my command of Angels had torn themselves into a frenzy unclaimed

Many are lost to Heaven’s tortured cry:
in truth, neither good, nor evil win
Only the War remains

Our sacrifice borne of spirited Honor
gained us entrance to the Gates
whence the skin-embrace rides in wake of the Name erased
the riddle-twin of Ascension saw it fit
 and continues to malign the untamed Beast
I awoke,
Mortal once more; a frail man dispossessed, 
and ensorcelled shut in the shell of soft flesh ...

Once I had a name whilst in the Dream
once there was a War that bled all of Life
 and yet could not be won
Now the lines of this Mirror open up
as the abysmal hosts recount their endless blasphemies
Of how the Gray coalesced into the Mist,
leaving me alone in a Sea of blood-encrusted Black
 amongst the tireless hordes of my Kin, my heart’s-Foe
My tongue torn out,
and these eyes Unseeing.