Dark Aria

Her eyes like obsidian,

With a mouth of coral red,

Her hair; a black thunder cloud,

Looms about her lordly head.

Around her breasts are clasped

Her talon bearing hands,

Her silken, snowy back

Like a marble column stands.

She is a timeless being

Made of flesh and burning steel.

Hers is the whole world to crush

Beneath her ivory heel.

Breathe her scent in a flower,

Taste her passion in the sea.

There her salty-sweet kisses

Set imprisoned spirits free.

Her lips are poised and ready

To smite silence with her song;

A thundering slow discord

That will put to flight the throng.

Her limbs, in naked splendour

Laugh all that is chaste to scorn.

All gods have been forgotten

Since the day that she was born.

Their temples are as byways

Whereupon her bare feet tread.

Their vestments are as matting

On the ground before her spread.

The seas might call her sister,

The winds dare not speak her name,

Though stars are born and perish,

She will always be the same.

How terrible her beauty!

She is madness given form,

A cold and spectral goddess;

First begotten of the storm!

A denizen of shadows

Who shuns the daylight hours;

In her are manifested

All primordial powers.

She is one with the tempest,

Veiling the moon’s face in gray;

All the gods would possess her

Had she less power than they.

O iridescent beauty,

In perpetual increase!

The thought of you brings solace

And the sight of you release.

O exquisite abandon:

Your blessing and your creed,

Whereby all slaves and sinners

Are forgiven and are freed.

Yes! Pleasure is your blessing

But pains follow your delights

For those who in your chamber

Seek to spend their sleepless nights.

You are my one desire

And I, enthralled by your sight,

Have sworn undying love for

The antithesis of light!

Each woman is your daughter,

A devotee in your train.

While I, for you would suffer

An eternity of pain.

Endless years of torture

As nothing to me would seem

Were I to hear your laughter

And behold your dark eyes gleam.

For betwixt pains and pleasures

Lie illusions and lost dreams,

Shadows upon deep waters

And gossamer soft moon beams.