On vespers

The green country of May held me captive I made a covenant with decay I waited in the wreckage deep in the cradle of darkness do not diminish me God of the wilderness I was sure I was finished I knelt below the bones of the summer stars to meet each apocalypse I resided in violence even that VOID was a kindness Queen of deferment in torment I was resigned to— I felt it was kind to— Vespers a gold-gossamer sunset wrested from me I traced the blooming lightning I fled I fell I followed an eldritch sorrow graceless Dawn and its sharp teeth could not console me I dreamt of delight I cried out your name into the liquid light YES I HEARD THE FOOTSTEPS OF GOD MARCHING ON YES EVEN I WANTED ME GONE IT WAS THAT RECURRING NIGHTMARE THAT SOUGHT ME ON AS IF CRISSCROSSING SOME DARK ISTHMUS YES I WAS SURE I WAS FINISHED THE UNIVERSE WOULD NOT LISTEN I could not bear my imprisonment while the stars scintillated the World was as a Wound, as a system with its pulleys and shifting gears and I feared— summers sibilance my beauty was resistance the dreaming of sepulchral streetlamps like druids of mist and I, I witnessed
I was sure I was finished