Tears Of The Rose

The Encounter with the Curious Circus

In the shivering shaking darkness

She ran on wobbly knees

Glancing at dim alleys and lit bars

Yet hesitating, daring to flee

Into the clutches of deeper night

But her legs give away under her

She, carrying a burden too light

Yet it weighs down upon her

That it tears her mind apart

And keeps her body weary

She sinks to her knees

Cowering in the shadows which

Once frightened her but now

Were as familiar as the rats

Detested by many, known to none

Her existence a mockery of humanity

Then a hand reaches out

Flesh from darkness,

Another being like her,

But much greater than her

Yet neither here nor there

She dips her head low

Fear singing through her veins

But the stranger silently resists

Stretching out her beacon of hope

She accepts.

And now in the bright lights she stands

Her eyes adjusting, already adapting

Knowing, yet unknowing if it be dream

Or nightmare; such fantasies of teleportation

Cannot be true, cannot be real

Not letting go of her hand,

The stranger escorts her along

The hallway dances with shadows

Flickering lamps casting changing

Changelings shifting from flesh

Back to shadow and other creatures

Eerily they creep on webbed feet

Hunched backs so thin they resemble

Bent twigs and those masked humanoids

Human or beast? Beast or being?

Still before her wondering eyes -

Having decided this strange yet curious

Circus of a hallway, likely a dream -

Juggling balls of flame that lick

Their Master's hands, unburnt;

Little dolls, unblemished save their faces

Blank like canvas sheets bar

The wide stitched smiles written

Now troop and clash

Their instruments upside down

She finally gazes up to her stranger

Yet still astonished she stares

Those hollow dark-set eyes

In a face so white like bone

Smiling without a mouth

Gloved hands, twisted underneath,

Blood red suit on a skeleton frame

Bare feet on the wooden floorboards

It's eyes grin almost maniacally

But she knows it means no harm

Only wanting to flash and scorn

His creatures of his curious circus

Ivory teeth, flaming tongues,

Horns of pink, webbed feet

And eagle talons carry

Lanterns of water:

Fire burning underwater

Yet shining all the brighter

Shadows extinguish and lights dim

Gravity lifts and floats itself

Portraits talk amongst themselves

And creatures freeze, unbreathing

Suddenly something stirs underneath

It snatches, grabs and trips,

Before her hands slip free from his grasp

The stranger presses something

Into her slim fragile hand

Then everything disappears.

She awakes to feel morn's warmth

She stretches a hand in wonder

Tasting bitter reality, its true flavor,

Her loose-fitting, dirt-smudged tattered outfit

A new gown of diamonds in her dreams;

Her worn, aged eyes in cracked mirrors

Blazed with defiance in her hallucinations

She uncurls her fist to see

A miniature lamp that held

A beacon of hope that blazed

Despite the quenching sea

She opened the lamp

Still unbelieving as it gushed out

The tiny light still burning brighter

And the water un-flowing,

Until she bottled it again

And with that hope, she started

To long for the night when she

Could return to her dreams

To that encounter with the curious circus