Darksong

 

Darksong

 

What lightless night comes?

Who has removed the moon?

Where are the stars taken?

Long winds in staccato rasps,

Stutter between the shivering trees,

A chatter of unseen.

Bare branches rub in violin shriek,

Frosted leaves rattle in maraca pulse:

This is the darksong.

No light to illume the infernal concerto,

You will endure this in inky black.

Skittering rodents toe tap asymmetry,

Wild felines make aria.

Something in you strains to answer,

But cold blood will not sing,

Your accompaniment is mere moan,

It will suffice,

This is the darksong,

There are no words.

Something wails at the forest edge,

It may be human,

Or perhaps was,

Mayhap another entity unknown,

Unnamed,

Better unidentified than recognized,

What would you see,

In the frigid dank?

Now is the canine chorus:

The mourned howls of dogs forgotten,

The nervous yips of coyotes cowed in underscore,

All overborne by the wolf calls,

Greeting that which you cannot see,

Or will not.

Yet these are nothing,

For they are followed by a silence complete,

Rife with a nothingness of sound,

Dead air that will hold no note,

Save that of the creak of a swinging door,

Opened not for entry,

But for your escape into that night –

This is the darksong:

You have been summoned.

 

Cliff Lake 9/26/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024