In the belly of this beast
Once past the razor teeth
And cruel, empty eyes
It is strangely peaceful down here
Where all the unwanted, the castaways
The lost and the fallen
Have been swallowed
And forgotten
And as I swim this blood dark pool
The faces I see are fiercely familiar
Their stories torn from the same Book of Sorrows
As my own
Some fade and some awaken
Some find grace and some find madness
But all these fates are painted
On the rag and bone canvas of time
And time
And time
As the tick tock of the skull clock
Chimes in rhyme
With the ravens that circle this field
Of scarecrows and bitter wind
I look close at the curling letters
Hissing words that I barely dare to know
And with each shaking page I turn
My horror and my wonder grows
For this parchment, feather thin
Melts like mist with a closer look
And in a moment more is shown
Then wise men care to know
Where fools rush in, and angels still tread slow
When celestial bodies, born of fire
Rolled and collided across the perimeters of eternity
These first chapters were forged
And you, and I, and the legions before us
Are written among these words
Our chronicles of sacrifice, of sacred rights, of sin
Where Dionysius dances, and the rights of spring begin
That lion headed goddess, that was you my friend
As I offered you the apple, still uncertain in my skin
And the thousand dancing Buddhas
And the beggar with his cane
And the worlds within the worlds
Within the worlds within the wind
That was us
We gave the earth its spin
And all of this
The Book of Sorrows holds herein