"they keep warm; they keep warm" *

[ the black jewels
sparkle in the dark;
they huddle together
like treasures
of the empire;
pink tails
chase each other
into the spaces
between the
stone walls;
they keep warm;
they keep warm,
and wait ... ]

fires float up the streets
on a sea of shadowed bodies;
limbs and torsos
tangle their way
through town;
the details adhere
to one another;
unobservable
- and horrifying -
as a bad dream

[ the black jewels
pass on through historywithout notice;
from hand to hand;
from mouth to foot;
never missing
an important event,
always watching
from the dark;
they keep warm;
they keep warm,
and wait ... ]

- trickle trickle -
no one speaks;
there are no chants
nor spells cast;
there is no preaching
nor claims to
righteousness;
there are no
murmurs of doubt
nor whispers
to unify

[ the black jewels
litter and lay amongst one another;
kept without order
or pattern;
shadows with fur,
shapes with feet,
secrets without words,
they keep warm;
they keep warm,
and wait ... ]

under the starless night,
above the city of stone,
at a height where the clouds
normally rest,
the sound of a thousand legs
- a millipede made of human parts -
stack its way up
to the castle tower
where one man sits in silence
and strains to hear
the sounds of progress
in the midst of mad rustling
coming from below his window

[ the black jewels
decorate the dark spaces
between the walls
and the unspoken
words of evolution;
they keep warm;
they keep warm
from the fires beneath their feet;
and wait,
knowing the only way
out from the underworld
is to be as patient
as hell ... ]























* Last Judgment: resurrection of the dead.