unwaking.
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2003 2:44 pm.. there were voices in the supple dark, voices that vialweh had not heard
for more than fifty years. .. they murmured the lyrics of lullabies, they
were soft .. they were familiar. the flightless faerie could hear them,
dreaming, and she breathed their soft poetry. .. it pained her softly and
distantly, a rich ache that she could all but ignore .. she saw the dead
against the black of her eyelids, felt them sitting with her at the opposite
end of a long table, dining ceaselessly. .. nodding, sighing about things
that had gone away in red tongues. .. things that vialweh knew had become
ash fertilizer to feed new trees.
.. the everspring was thrown with dappled shadows, nodding, dancing and
swaying like distraught mothers .. pansies had sprung up around the
featherdown bower. .. they were ever attentive, very still, watching ..
waiting very patiently and without judgment. .. listening to each
inhalation, each exhalation. vialweh lay in a nest of what things she
valued most - a box of oak and hewn metal with a tiny latch, created by
Jean-Jules for her buttons. .. as for the buttons themselves, most of them lay piled in the box. two of them, though, were laid in the sockets of her eyes; they were black buttons from a sailor's longcoat. .. her hair a halo, her bluegreen shift laid about her carefully .. bare, filthy feet. .. beribboned. .. beringed.
.. she slept, and would not wake. .. her heart rested, felt nothing, it
beat on without any inkling that the soul tied to it was restless and wary
.. a soul that had once shared space with another, with one that had loved
it more dearly than any other. it had been none other than a demon soul that had hated and loathed and had desired and hungered; that had eaten, savoured, and had ultimately survived. .. her soul was wary because it carried knowledge
that was at once singular - the presence that had tangled with vialweh's
soul was not gone. .. it had died again, but it would return. .. it was
contained. .. it paced its cage with malice and adoration.
.. vialweh moaned a little in her sleep. .. the pansies turned their faces
to one another, nodding now, sharing glances. .. they suspected, but they were
only half right.
for more than fifty years. .. they murmured the lyrics of lullabies, they
were soft .. they were familiar. the flightless faerie could hear them,
dreaming, and she breathed their soft poetry. .. it pained her softly and
distantly, a rich ache that she could all but ignore .. she saw the dead
against the black of her eyelids, felt them sitting with her at the opposite
end of a long table, dining ceaselessly. .. nodding, sighing about things
that had gone away in red tongues. .. things that vialweh knew had become
ash fertilizer to feed new trees.
.. the everspring was thrown with dappled shadows, nodding, dancing and
swaying like distraught mothers .. pansies had sprung up around the
featherdown bower. .. they were ever attentive, very still, watching ..
waiting very patiently and without judgment. .. listening to each
inhalation, each exhalation. vialweh lay in a nest of what things she
valued most - a box of oak and hewn metal with a tiny latch, created by
Jean-Jules for her buttons. .. as for the buttons themselves, most of them lay piled in the box. two of them, though, were laid in the sockets of her eyes; they were black buttons from a sailor's longcoat. .. her hair a halo, her bluegreen shift laid about her carefully .. bare, filthy feet. .. beribboned. .. beringed.
.. she slept, and would not wake. .. her heart rested, felt nothing, it
beat on without any inkling that the soul tied to it was restless and wary
.. a soul that had once shared space with another, with one that had loved
it more dearly than any other. it had been none other than a demon soul that had hated and loathed and had desired and hungered; that had eaten, savoured, and had ultimately survived. .. her soul was wary because it carried knowledge
that was at once singular - the presence that had tangled with vialweh's
soul was not gone. .. it had died again, but it would return. .. it was
contained. .. it paced its cage with malice and adoration.
.. vialweh moaned a little in her sleep. .. the pansies turned their faces
to one another, nodding now, sharing glances. .. they suspected, but they were
only half right.