Neophyte of a Nameless God (standard:poetry, 368 words)
Author: kendall thomas	Added: Jun 21 2006	Views/Reads: 3103/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Fantasy through space and time.

I am the neophyte of a nameless god, 

the follower of a strange caravan 

that leaves no trace upon the sands. 

I am the dreamer who seeks the source of all illusion, 

the meaning of riddling runes on walls of lichen-covered stone. 

I am the traveler who once stopped to rest near the somber tomb 

of some long-vanished elder god 

who left his frozen tears of gold ‘neath vacant, opal moons. 

And all about me lay the shadowed ruins, piled one on one, 

of other monstrous tombs, 

each one prouder than the last, 

and yet each foredoomed by thoughtless hands 

that built from wind-shifting sand to sand. 

From one dead world unto the next, 

I see the emptiness of my futile quest, 

yet I cannot stop; and like some mad dervish, 

endlessly pursue the phantom of  the thing that is myself. 

I have kissed the cool, rubric lips of long-dead queens in 

whose veins ran blood as cold  as glacial streams. 

And I have seen dungeons built of rough-hewed stone that have outlasted
dark eternity, 

and have heard the never-ending screams of tortured souls on racks of
hellish fire 

left abandoned by indifferent gods, long since expired. 

I have heard the music ethereal, sweet and pure played by silk-clad
nymphs 

on lutes made of human skin; 

and have seen naked dancers spiral about with the rattling skulls 

of those who died to sate a pampered prince's whim. 

Often I have seen a phantom hand beckon to me from beyond, 

but only was my own that had conspired to lead me on. 

Once, eons ago, wearied of my never-ending quest, 

I rested on a darkened world and watched a race of titans 

battle through an endless void for possession of an emerald star-- 

and won, idly cast afar. 

Siren calls I have heard in the deep, spatial night; beautiful women 

tempting with supernal delights, 

yet these were demons with eyes ablaze 

and claws readied to grip and hold. 

Once upon a nameless star, I beheld the statue of a  majestic being, 

poised as if weighed with some great profundity, 

that sat and stared into the void; 

and when I touched it it crumbled into dust and was no more. 


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