Betelguese Part 3

Where jargling javels stab a toad, And mutter swift, as vypers swear; And spectres that the cauldrons wrought, Glare at the storm-swept sins that tell Of monsters that the night-winds rode When b.l.o.o.d.y plumes stole to a lair Beyond the confines of a ghaut.

And s.p.a.cious halls where vagrants lie-- Vandals to the Dawn, Night and Dusk!

And vulpine labyrinths of h.e.l.l Where pirates of a star are thron'd As dews cloak bones that pierce the sky, Wowed witches with a gorce's l.u.s.t When vales list to a clanging bell That some encharnel'd hybrid domed, Sweats cesspools with the pall of fear, Shrill sounds permeate the barren air, Each shatter'd light before a well, Ends its flame in short, spastic gasps.

And stars that burn but once a year, (Veined Aureoles to altars where, When sins are told unto each knell As chanting runes are hushed with clasps Of winds provoked by black-set night, Peer at the caravans in prayer; A dirge is sung by magicians; Each Idol squints eyes at the show, Whilst goblins curse the eerie sight.

And Betelguese, an evil lair With infernal, warring legions, Careens as stars shed tears of woe.

Arcadia, its pleasing name, An Eden where the d.a.m.n'd drink wine, Where rich fetes greet each varlet's eye, Each gyving hound whom Fates have doomed: Each scyphus veils a burning flame; A blood-stone from each dome doth s.h.i.+ne On poisons that in goblets lie, Bred by sorcerers, cursed and tombed.

Then Terrors, Horrors, reign supreme!

Each vial squat before the spread, Leer at toads in goblets crossed, Froth skinks within each feaster's gla.s.s, Wine changed to blood, then acrid green.

A drunken villain who was bled As drink his convulsed entrails tossed, Writhes with the cramps upon the gra.s.s And glares at the face of his G.o.d, Whose wrinkled skin, in ghastly wrath, Provoked at this son in revolt, Rants his spleen to the slabs of Doom, From whence gyte monsters with a rod, That oft gave imps a b.l.o.o.d.y bath, Hythe, and before their master halt; And, then came unhung, battling gloom!

The dome cracked like a clas.h.i.+ng star, All lights were m.u.f.fled in a shroud, Wild winds that cought us in their fold, Dashed wrecks unto a reeking zone.

In Thralldom's grasp we waged giant war, The storms rasped at each cursing crowd, From regions far there sprung a cold That froze each hoodlum stuck in loam.

There, garbed in the wastes of a moat, Gangrel witches scan the slime to curse Beneath a dome and shatter'd light, A sign that all are lost and doomed.

Toward jagged heights black oaths float, To skies of jasper light, adverse To Doom's rich fold, prayers reach thro' night That some malignant monster tombed In phantom-blankets stark and bold.

All mountain-chasms growl and roar; Each ocean froths black waves of l.u.s.t; King Thunder rasps the trembling night; Giant lightnings split their fevered hold; Encharneled guilt hastes to this sh.o.r.e As hydras squirm along the dust, Affrighted at this Cauldron's sight.

For we are unsubstantial wrecks Beyond the pale of scale and fin; Adventurers tossed by king Time In region 'neath supernal skies.

To dungeoned knells where venom specks The robes of priestesses with sin, And prowling apes get drunk with wine, We turn each thought to coral eyes That seas have blurred with coffined night, And whisper deeds wrought in silence.

A quiver that the tomb-sweat bore When walls were split with Typhon's ire; And monstrous shapes that carved the light As dragon-worms brought pestilence To souls who grovel on this sh.o.r.e, Proclaim each gyving djinnee sire.

And dryades whom the mists have struck With ague--A Sceptre of Despair!

(Sklayres to the night, and suns unstunned) Dank dulse, where templed vaults of man, Coa.r.s.e-grained, who gambled with king Luck, 'Mid pulse of life below the air, Shake at the throb of this unsummed Sphere, where haunted thoughts and dreams scan Athward at a untower'd home, Where vitals that the glow-worm lit-- Friends to the Doom! as sorrowed soul, Repress'd with rage, knelt down and prayed, Rise from the hollowed void a moan As sins upon papyrus, writ In vyper's blood--Jems in this shoal!

Confess'd by men whom friends have flayed, Teem in the wind-swept, shatter'd strands-- Blind batter'd keels that know no rest 'Mid surge of moans that tombs have spilt.

Upon the air that Doom hath wrung, Beyond the fields where numberless hands Point to the headland of the West, Lights and vague shadows spell no guilt Unto the wraiths whom Torpor stung.

And all night-thoughts in this strange sphere, Tred in the skirts of waters cold, Of h.e.l.l-winds that the beaches swirl Dome-high within this shrunken realm; And crested billows toss giant Fear Unto each culprit's hidden fold: The studded roof where flares a pearl, The charnel vapours o'erwhelm.

In caverns where gyte jinnee lee-- Noctivagous lepers in the gloom-- Unhollowed regions wrapped in light Where groans are drowned by revels coa.r.s.e, (Seen by a gump throughout the year Above the strife where horrors soom) Lurk crafty gnomes who with the night Rant oaths in voices cracked and hoa.r.s.e: Blood-thirsty jinn in essling caves, Where rubic dyes tinge Torture's dome, And vypers' whispers pierce the night As ghouls--whose baneful eyes conspire With the surge of h.e.l.l's roaring waves-- Rear mounts of bone--Dame Sorrow's home!

As charnel scarn parades in light-- Unfathomed crafts rayed in wowed attire.

And dusky mists peer at the show, Obtest the gloom to further deeds Of haste, to Horror's added might; Tho' twilight-witches spill their gloom, (Betelguese's priestesses of woe) Abhorrent gawks lure in the reeds Where shatter'd lights wing sudden flight, 'Mid spun-waves kiss'd by poppy bloom.

Dank dulse, and rus.h.i.+ng waters cold; Eternal signs of shadowed night Beyond the zephyr-haunted s.p.a.ce Of adequate lees 'neath the sky: Unfathomed haunts of stark souls bold That squat on waves of darkest dight, Malignly mute as foam-waves race To pyres where men in torture lie.

When thrones are levelled to the dust, And glories fade in cauldrons tossed, 'Mid waters vaster than the night In scarlet tombs that rasp grim Death, Supernal selves, loosed from king l.u.s.t As Dissolution bulwarks crossed, Conviction of an undreamt might a.s.sail each mongrel afrite's breath.

Hushed gasps permeate the solemn air As coral Twilight flaunts its sheen, And vapours wreath phantastic forms Till vaulted domes glow like the noon.

Vague dreams plague souls beyond repair, Phantoms, black demons call their queen, Skinks and owls whom no conscience storms Make faces at the leprous moon.

And bleak dungeons dank with odours Strong, within each encrusted gyre, 'Mid treasure-vaults digged by gray Age, Affronting witches incense burn; And howling ghouls gape thro' vapours, Two siffling vampyres dance on fire, Each mottled sage a conquered page To him whose hate no Doom can turn, No bat-faced gnome can stem the blaze: Hence harlots, ghastly with giant sin, Chant runes to him in strobic gloom As figgum's plied before his throne.

Malignly mute, he peers thro' haze; Infernal paeons shake each Inn, Blue lights 'twixt opals burn and bloom In deep-hued haunts of Typhon's home.

In vain we seek an isle of peace Beyond the pale of siffling Doom!

'Mid stillness vaster than the tomb, Made equal with the ghouls who lurk On battlements where witches ease Their minds as rubic censers fume, A Fiend bubbles in ruddy bloom As turgid dyes the night-dwales s.h.i.+rk.

No sunsets crimson this stained sea, No Ev'ntides her plume unfolds; An opaque light that Silence wrought.

Careens thro' s.p.a.ce in quest of toll.

Then demons storm each sea and lee, Abhorrent sights each Cauldron holds, Dim shapes flit to the distant ghaut Where Doom sits poised--Each monster's goal!

Erelong the air shakes with a roar-- Forebodings of souls on Death's dome!

Bright cyphers spell the new-d.a.m.ned name In letters 'gainst a leprous home: Oaths peel like the hammer of Thor-- The screaming thing is flayed to bone!

Its sins--an outraged Body's shame-- Laid bare as whipcords dye the foam, Whereon nepheloid imps and night, Soom on with tidings of a moan, Of dews, and whisper'd groans and sighs.

And, as vague forms writhe in despair, A native in phantastic dight Stills Torture's hold in weazened tone, Black incense lifts its wand and flies To haunts where mattoids rave and swear.

Where figent gawks sken at a gnome, Decked in byssin and beads of gold; And glozing jinn on a scree's height, That leer as geysers boil and flow, Feazing imps on serai's dome, Drink from olpes icy philters cold, Whilst scarn a.s.sails the morning light-- And gumps haste to the Dawn's first show.

Then pyres don mystic sklayres agleam, A faffling fool leads gawks thro' hall Where fays, in stones of ancient art, Dance as Scorpions shake with glee: Infernal pomps spread tawny sheen, Strange figgum, amid unholy pall, Pierce Sorrows with its poisoned dart Whence horrors shake their limbs and flee.

And scenes, profound in Aspect's hue, Play havoc with eyes of each soul: Crimson dales (vague tho' they be) And swards rise from the lurid moat; Knees bend in Adoration's pew, Blithe songs of cheer, far and near, roll Thro' the halls to ebony sea, Above whose breast twin whispers float-- Tremendous signs of dooms to be!

And, ere falt'ring noon wings itself To shadow peaks and portals bright That scyle veiled augueries of h.e.l.l, An agate light arrays this sea, Each glabrous fay sports with an elf, A one-eyed owl blinks at the light, A green-horned toad croaks from a well.

Then pageantries fade in the gloom: 'Mid Cyclopean storms unstunned Dank treasure-houses spill their quest And march with thunder from far West; Whilst lightning flashes skirr the noon, Giant moans ascend from shoals unsunned, The turf, Tartarus' coals of rest-- Helots to the haunts of Sin's crest-- Whereon jimp jinn ride to h.e.l.l's mouth, The silence stir with oaths of might; Vile dragons roar at a zimb's sting; A swarthy gump leers at the d.a.m.n'd: All soom to mountains of the South Where sultry winds war with the light, And zanies' voices rise to sing, Hosannah to the idol's stand, Where azure-censers' fumes enhance The pomps, adverse to Sorrow's home.

Figent hydras squat on each throne, Mute souls peer at the altar's flame As phantom images do dance In honour of this Hybrid's zone, Bred in this gorce by some strange gnome, Sib to him who plays Satan's game.

A Cesspool vext with leprous stench And oils--A sign that spells a curse!

Visioned with Temples' diamonds bright In domes as guide to those whose cry Of fear, sprung from a wench's bench, Lure all to this strange sh.o.r.e, adverse To moonlit skies. By the ghaut's light, (Ten-thousand furlongs wide and high) The gaud, spun from sorcerers' art, Reveals its part unto each soul-- Imperishable signs of groans That time nor cyclones can eschew.

No lulling lanes point to a mart, No tidings good their billows roll; In fretful haunts where Sorrow moans, Swarm souls in Penance's rasping pew: Disastrous sights of Torture's dome!

Red-embered coals that burn their feet!

And reeking pools, vile with odours, Make monstrous this blood-crimson vale.

Where demon-lovers chew a bone As men and women choak in heat, And blood-veined sights writhe in vapours-- Eternal shadows in each gale!

To groves where stiliness sat supreme, Flee seers in quest of lagging rest; To regions where giant echos roar, Haste begotten sons in this lair: There man-born wrecks lie down and dream Of sea-winds that foam-billows bless'd, Of auric realms where censers pour Violaceous fumes thro' the air.

And in the deep-hued depths of gore, (Blind bowels in Betelguese's hold) Gyte vandals that a Dragon bore Sleep with one eye as Midnight rules These sons of Circe whom pyres adore; Their thoughts vie with the luring fold, Each sleepless...o...b..glares like a boar-- Infernal hounds of shambling ghouls!

Porphyry mounts where crystals glare-- Twin carcants strung on idols' thighs Whereon stones, blaze like fire bright, And moonstones add their silver sheen, A Circean draught, boiled in the air, Is poured on cippus where Set lies; Where vanquished Soldans sleep each night, A greenish fungus-torch doth gleam.

Giant battles have been fought in h.e.l.l, Princ.i.p.alities rot in dust, The tombs of kings speak of the past When Incubi reigned with a rod.

Unnumbered bones adorn each dell-- Where Rulers lie there stands a bust; Blood-stained the hands of him whose task Is blasting varlets like a G.o.d.

And when some spirit stalks thro' s.p.a.ce In quest of vaults--Temporal lees!

Treads in the grandeur of dank h.e.l.l, A batter'd shape that shakes its frame, s.p.a.cious regions Courage chase, Winds drive it to Misery's seas, Laughs ascend from sequestered well, Thro' shadows vague it hears its shame.

And tomb-thrown groans and sighs we hear-- Tho' midnight's near and afrite's sleep: An Owl, perturbed at some strange sound, Scares bats in s.p.a.ce and wings for domes.

All signs of woe hath flown with fear, No maidens heave their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and weep, All wrecks of Flesh lie on the ground, Removed from shoals where Terror moans.

On skulls that some in Death hath left, Croak toads to lizards in a well; In cajons that the Ancient's digged, Swim snakes that hiss at burning oils: And bats and owls that offal cleft, Proclaim their burdens to a dell, Whilst crafts that some strange witch hath rigged, Bring slaves unto this Cesspool's coils.

When carcants gleam like scarlet foam, And hiss of pyres froth at each light In dongas vext as jazels flare From splinter'd tombs of Kings in dust, A straggling mist that cleft h.e.l.l's dome, Peers at the gloom and strobic sight Of charnel shard as vypers blare Wrathfully at each Monarch's bust.

And doleful dirges rake the gloom, A whisper'd sin sobs at the wrecks; Graven imps clasp papyrus old And rant each Body's deeds of shame.

Come from a dank and sunken womb All stranded ghouls on keels and decks Where Cyclops fought as Vellum told In cyphers bright, sprung from each flame, Make hideous eyes at the night.

And terrors that Tartarus bred a.s.sail each kingdom treblefold: A gangrel clan that someone flayed, Skirr thro' the dungeoned halls in flight And seek the caverns of the dead.

Where tapers gleam like virgin gold The tombs of dead queens are arrayed: There, too, a witch unfurls her cowl And scans the shambling hordes to curse, And with the light that cyclones split, She juggles secrets of her l.u.s.t, And hurls her voice at Nephele's owl, Past portals dark, where harlots nurse Their skinless limbs that Torture bit, And stamps her feet into the dust As, into olpes she pours a tear: And, musing at the clouds of gloom, She wrinkles face and lifts her hands To mutter words unto the night.

Whereon a ghoul-king hath writ Fear, And changes gloom to purple bloom, The shoals to opal-sanded strands That reach, past wrecks to crystal light, Where mossy vales with poppies bloom, And hastes her flight from Terror's urn, To onyx seas where agates glow, And feats her eyes on woes of h.e.l.l, Upon the foam-dreams of king Doom, Where monsters in red cauldrons burn, 'Mid shrieks that from their vitals flow With airs that rasp each bone-strewn dell.

And sea-linkt skies of charnel black-- A savage dome! streaked scarlet red, Where maids for demon lovers mourn; And caskets spew a dusky foam That quench the thirst of yon lone wrack That holds the sultry, naked dead, Who caught the eyes of waves forlorn, Now bathed in blood in Hecate's home.

There garnet wrought and purple lights s.h.i.+ne thro' poisoned vials of age On churning pomps of cas.e.m.e.nts old, Where, when lofty aisles and halls Ring rich with tenor runes in nights Made solemn by a h.o.a.ry sage With darkling eyes that gleam like gold, A prowling vandal storms the walls, Nursed with dank venom broths and oils.

A blood-shot minx hunts for a man; In stys and broken pyxs she peers For him who ruined her honour, soul; A harlot doomed in clinging coils That now her longings curse and d.a.m.n, Squats on a skull and pulls her ears: Or, just when she finds her life-goal,-- A cow'ring cur hid from the sight Beneath a putrid mount of bone, And tombs grow dank as rising sun Makes red each dragon in the West, She splits his heart and rasps with might, A curse that rides the surging foam, A message that this dastard son Dies longing for a fatal quest-- Surcease of soul and conscience lost!

Then rants she sins unto each tomb That sweat the l.u.s.ts of those in dust, And scarlet foam and hiss of oils That her black deed to domes hath tossed, Break into writhing life and bloom As iron crowns and ceptres rust Of fall'n monarchs crossed in coils.

Anear, two carcants glare like gold; Afar, a ruby's light of red Straggles thro' the pellicled mist, And to its vinewed dell haste I, To catch the fleeting whispers told To marble-lamps and head-stones, said, By demon-husbands as I list, To hold each mongrel harlot's sigh.

There, then, in tatter'd rags and hair, Coa.r.s.e-grained of features once so fine, She spews her 'evil wrath and rage Into the wriggling hands and face Of him who lifts his voice to swear A curse that stirs the air, whose time (Tho' to king Satan speeds a page) Hath come as Vengeance wins the race.

When crimson skies and stellor eyes Swathed palace domes and turrets strong, Her lips kiss'd mine, and mine did hers, Ere evil smote her virgin soul.

And livid lights of bleeding dyes (Whenas she prods him with her p.r.o.ng) Make terrible her words so terse That brands this scoundrel on this shoal.

And mutt'ring quick a ghastly oath As turgid mists veil shadows vague, She plucks his lying tongue that stole Her husband's love and honour old, And smites him stark and cold, tho' loath, It peers to me her demon-ague That binds her to this perjured soul, She drinks his gore from carvels cold And leers with fiendish lips at him, Now tossed in phosph.o.r.escent holes.

And as I list to aspen cries, Veiled augueries in vapours hie And spell these tokens to each Inn: Kingdoms, empires, nations, souls, Shall miss the haunts of Paradise, And in Subjection, crumbling, lie.

And when the regions, wrapped in light By pillared dreams and pomps supreme As curses stir the charnel air That hide dank caverns deep and bold, A battling monster smites the night As lepers wink their orbs and dream Of maidens that the men forswear, Of templed vaults now stiff in cold.

And when a dim, unholy tomb, Wreathes odours damp and vapours strong-- Heirs of the Doomed! as savage domes Drip palsied sweat and carnal howls a.s.sail the stationed halls of gloom, Where imps and devils march along Beside a monarch's crumbling bones As witches don their filthy cowls And rant their sins thro' whistling halls, Shake women fists at fleeing souls And wail for batard children dead; Whilst quickly from the burning dust Ascends an oath that storms the walls And rasps the distant mounts and shoals Until each pyre glows scarlet red, Each idol leers with wicked l.u.s.t.

Forth from rubies flare scented fumes As beacons glare and bubbles hiss To crimson strands and altars' glow Of burning oils in carvels deep, Where; when Torture's b.l.o.o.d.y dome looms Cold as shambling shapes of men kiss Trembling women before the show, Wraiths point to where their daughters weep.

To lie in vaults and chambers cold 'Mid tombs that ghouls in hatred wrought!

To sleep in dank Subjection's shard 'Mid hanuts of purple sins and shales A Thirst gyre! as bleak, untold, As ever haunted woman sought For incubi on scented sward As bleary owls and vulpine wails Rake stationed nights and seas forlorn, Until, when star-linkt domes are red, And Oceans' sh.e.l.ls and sands grow white, Dusky isles and lights--Twins of the Gloom!

Betray each soul cursed and forsworn; Or awed, at Twilights' scarlet bed, When nightshades blot the conjured light As javels vomit death and doom, Dank vapours veil the seaward flight Of Satellites gray 'gainst the night.

Till, eyes in fear peer at profounds Unfathomed and, in vales unsunned, See Cyclops battling in the light, 'Mid scarlet foam and gorey sight Of b.l.o.o.d.y domes and hybrid hounds Of t.i.tan's forges, cold, unstunned.

Oh, vain each sinner's prayer of hope!

Alas, alas, all thoughts of future trust!

The b.l.o.o.d.y lanes of reigning Doom Are lasting tombs for souls accurst.