Somewhere beyond sleep
Beyond dreaming
Beyond the gentle sin of sight
There, a whisper fills the night:
Arise from your sleep, children of fate
Abandon your cradles
The words are honeyed, syrup-sweet
With sugar made from rotting meat
The echoes of the unseen narrator
Reverberate from the hidden walls
The merest movement in the air
Silence—and yet, something’s there
Crouched and chuckling in the shadows
Where the wisdom of the ancients lies in rows
Effigies of lead and time
Clothed in dust and argent rime
The Devourer in Darkness exudes a stench
The smell of roses
Brilliant blossoms, thick and heady
Enough to make the mind unsteady
So thick and cloying as to be nauseating
There is nothing pretty about it
Skittering, the noises dart
They come like shadows, and so depart