Nocturne Triumph

Low magic prepares for combat High Magic prepares for unity

The combatant focusing on their rebuttal before the challenger finishes speaking

The wedge is driven, the gap widens

The magician perceiving the perspective of the challenger to see what might be learned, and where a common seed roots in the very primal human instincts of survival

The responsibility of intelligence is compassion toward the ignorant And awareness of intention or lack thereof One need not scold the blind nor be bitter toward the stumbling fool

NOX

the Moon’s at it's fullest the sun is full too

Memories of you still filling up this room

Fingers and lashes, the smell of your hair,

Haunting my bed because nothing is there.

heart is so empty

there's nothing inside

But particles left where you lived and you lied

A broken old chain and a half-cured disease

A few mumbled phrases of scrapped japanese

 Echos of panic cried out in the night

So many falsehoods and so many fights

Too strong to be swayed and thank God I was tough

All I could give you was never enough

My body my home my heart and my mind

You took all you needed then left me behind.

All of our icons just rolled to the next

girl the stories and symbols will do

 Did her candles burn black

Did your dark phantoms follow you

Did she get accused

Did the same tactics worked upon me

work so easily

on her too

 Dreams and erasures still play in my mind

Your many faces in shots that hid crying

The thought of you rips through with tiny demon fingers

Rends me apart and my ashes soak into the earth

 To die

To burn

To birth.

 To be silent

To survive

To face the dark core of the con I was willing to buy

 In a moment unbalanced

It cracked the armor

I let in darkness

She spied across the cauldron as the chalky mist split A form angelic devilish and feeling like a masochist A power like an avalanche the moment they begin Before the cards had hit the felt the chips were already in. False forms peeled away and pealing angels came in sharp like razors, the cards were all faced. A hunch had made him poke around, perform precision escapade He cased the joint Beat feet and whisper-like Secured the bag. The guards were out to lunch Both times so they were promptly fired before the sound of the alarm had even hit the wire. Once wolf-like stepping sneaking took his opportunity, a filthy debacle before the first tear spilt And left on deck she had to self-protect Alert the whole community A big girl in a sprawling city One hand on the katana the other on the kitty and spinning and pouring chronically overflowing Up or down and everywhere or nowhere going.

Now they’re shoulder to shoulder on the cliff side as Lightning bolts rain down from the skies, and lie like knights in the dark, two hearts together press harder 3, 2, 1 she jumps ... and now she’s drowning in his eyes. he says "I like where your heads at" when it's down between his thighs and her temperatures' rising Like a crisis Still they’re here to light the lights Etheric framework emboldened But the sharpest tool in the shed Stung the starkest when she bled. The most righteous equal yet backslid When he goes The thrill of the prize if they avoid the black widows The bravest battlefield soldier broken over his own blade. The manifesto grows bolder And the acidic verdict laid.

Aftermath

Waking up with full synapses

electric river flowing through my mind. And all I want to do,

is spend my forever perpetuating your happiness,

my only occupation, making you smile.

My etheric body a battlefield the morning after.

Like the 5th of July when the streets lie scattered

and strewn with the debris of last night's revelry

full of ashes and burnt matches,

bullet shells and discharged cardboard battalion, gunpowder blasts.

Demonstrations of fixed fire that left even the neighbors blocks away impressed.

Forever joyful charged expression observation or spark

sent from me to you across the ethers

either up into the night above you

just to show you a glimmer

or maybe an explosion, a magic trick, a color

you'd only seen in dreams, a rainbow of these,

your face turned to the sky and mortar launched, I watch

the moment of payoff in your eyes

still looking up as the stars fall, and in this moment I see you harder..

and all I want to do is forever light the darkness.

And every rocket launch, every whistling fountain, which crescendos

and sometimes hits with a final

poof

snap

you then reach into your bag,

and set up your artillery

I watch as you light the fuse

and brace for the big BOOM

and you send it

I feel it

some do explode above me

and rain down like embers,

and some hit me square in the chest,

at ground level,

One starless night, by crescent moon

a goddess walked alone

Intent and poised through forests dark

she ventured from her throne

 In time a serpent caught a glimpse

and deftly moved beside her

the goddess blinded to her fate

with only faith to guide her

 And in the moment darkest,

clouds obscured the lunar-light

The serpent reared to strike her

poison dripping from its bite

 When in this moment, time stood still

except the winds of death

which blew across her regal neck

and grabbed her by the breath

 Yet by the grace of Thoth himself

upon the lunar barque

A beam shone from a mountaintop

and boldly broke the dark

 The goddess fled, the serpent sped

to seek the brilliant source

and summiting the mountain

was drawn by a blinding force

 Emitted from a lantern

which was glowing from within

the serpent wrapped about the rod

and there it shed its skin

 And when the reptile had cast off

its final armored scale

It rose, and stood, not snake, but god

emerged from serpents’ veil

 The god, still bare, dropped to his knees

and felt his pain disperse

humbled by the gravity -

the lifting of his curse

 And there he stayed at Hermit’s peak

for forty days and nights

absorbing understanding

of the dark and of the light

 And when the time had come

the god was ready to go forth

the Hermit raised his wizened gaze

and pointed to the north

 Then through his endless wanderings

of seeking truth and hope

the god was trained by stone and rain

by trees and wind and rope

 Yet buried deep within him

a memory remained

the goddess once saved from his fangs

before his past was slain

 And what befell the goddess

once escaping serpents’ teeth?

She laid her life before the altar

and all else was placed beneath

 By day she filled the temple

and attended to the needs

of every starving seeker

and fulfilled her holy deeds

 Her life devoted fully

to the one true AIN SOPH AUR

She stoked the temple fires

and she washed its marble floor

 Yet at night in sacred silence

watching stars above her turning

she delved into her adytum

and felt a secret yearning

 She dreamt of him, her serpent god

though in the morning fleeting

she harbored secret prophecy

and prayers of future meeting

 “To bind! To merge! And to ascend!!”

like serpents round the staff

To will, to know, and ever dare

The only forward path

 Old Saturn and the Hermit

watched the two of them below

the goddess in her temple

and the god in winters snow

 For both had forged a path their own

and both had earned the right

which brought them finally face to face

one warm November night

 Unaware of prior meeting

each for the other holding space

one, a seed becoming

the other, a dwelling place

 And in one month a bond had formed

between the moon and sun

and on the night of virgin birth

a cycle was begun

 A heat which rises from below

and moved across her skin

was tempered by the fallen snow

and felt throughout, by him

 The dawn revealed the simple truth

which both of them were taught

How each were true magician

holding keys the other sought

 The goddess saw him fully

and by his side she stayed

for she had slept where he had dreamt

and knelt where he had prayed

 And ever in their journeys

together and apart

the god and goddess (Elohim)

The outline of your silhouette I’m stuffing up with cotton To muffle out each memory Which rings so clearly in my mind

And every sober moment So far from being forgotten Where something grew with flesh and bone Now only absence left behind

Taunted by prophetic doom Threatened by a non existent combatant To both I raise my sword as I do Challenging fate when I should surrender

Even now I’m questioning if I can do this differently Can I relinquish the sword and simply hold the lantern

    *    *    *    from heavy husks a dull pulse uncoils serpentine shadows and stretching stalks

Arise! Arise! To me! Your master calls you, nameless one, First she-devil! Rose of Hades! Herodias were you, and what else? Gundryggia then, Kundry here! Come here! Come here now, Kundry! Your master calls: arise!