• Tendrils of smoke snake through
    birch branches
    winding through the air
    Pale leaves on the ground
    glimmer faintly
    reflecting the silvery, cloud-cloaked moon
    The night air struggles,
    choked by the poison
    Shadows skitter around tree roots
    orange light painting pictures on the ground
    flames licking at the air.
    Sick, croaking laughter
    a single high cackle
    shrieks of erratic laughter
    The darkness stirs.
    Stygian beasts dance in the twilight,
    leap through trees
    over fire
    over stars
    not hearing the pounding of
    their fragile hearts.
    One throws his head back,
    lids veiling the sapphire of his eyes,
    nostrils flaring as he drinks in
    toxic vapors,
    venomous fumes,
    laughing inside at the thrill,
    burning his tears in the
    forked tongues of the flames.
    A column of smoke spirals up through
    viridian leaves and to ocean-floor sky,
    to a yellow moon shrouded in charcoal clouds,
    to a thunder moon
    carrying crazed, vacant laughter into the night.