Wings once white.

Halo gone,

Angel,

Fallen...

So perfectly imperfect,

Once a puppet on stings,

Now free on Earth,

Fallen...

Whether Lucifer,

Who questioned God,

Or a harmless angel,

Curious about love,

Wanting to live,

Fallen...

Each made a mistake,

Each chose,

Each fell,

Fallen...

Dark wings of soft feathers,

Pale skin and immortal eyes,

Knowing much but desiring more,

Beautiful but flawed,

Once an angel,

Now almost human,

Fallen...

Heart and head of crimson

Bathe in the river

to cool her flames

Eyes of onyx watch

Thrashings and claws

tear apart the sand below

Arrows of angered knights

attempt to pierce her 

harvest her gold

Cobalt fire flies from her lips

illuminates white gold etchings

in the underside of her wings

evidence of all she's lived

Knights tumble in peril 

black and white cards 

falling to ash

She hadn't intended 

to make a hurricane

Fiery flight

bathed in feathered fire

to which death is no end

but simply a new start-

life, death, ashes, birth.

From nothing something

and from something nothing,

charred remains scattered

and from them the beginning of

an eternal cycle.

The fifth season

That always comes

When you're not looking

Grandmas scratchy velvet blanket

Your fingers

Light as whiskers

On my skin

I will go

Behind the wall

And down the stairs

Beneath my ribs

Where you are locked in

Sealed in the bell jar

I will release you 

When you're not looking

And you'll fly like a phoenix

Never to return

The ashes lay on the ground. Lifeless and cold. I sat sobbing. Ember, she had been my only friend. Then the ashes stirred and the sweet buttery voice I knew filled my ears. "Do not cry for me child" I looked up in disbelief at ember who was now more beautiful than ever. "Ember" I cried. "But how?" As overjoyed as I was a was still baffled. "Do you not know the ways of the phoenix?" I shook my head. "We rise from our own ashes so we can spread our wings and fly once more.

Oh, creature, you are beautiful and cruel,

but with red Crimson flames kissing your scalp

instead of your lips,

and, creature, you are of the divine

in beauty, in mind, in structure,

I have been where you reside but I can't seem

to make my body radiate as much power as you possess,

I have been where you reside but I can't seem to make my presence as incandescent when it lies in a place so wavering and deep,

I have come from the place of which you derive but I can't seem to capture a single heart with a song from my own,

How do you do it, creature?

Will you teach me that song you've been singing?- It seems to be stuck in my head.

The ancient Egyptians had it right

holding sacred the feline's might

Right now to this very day

there are those who bow and pray

To my favorite mythic creature

A cat head is her finest feature

Bast or some call her Bastet

She may be a kitty but she's no pet.

It's said Bastet can change her form

From human to a cat reborn

Goddess of birth and warrior fierce

Her sharp blade won't fail to pierce

Egypt's enemies big or small

Bast can stalk them til they fall

With dignity of a cat she walks

With wisdom of a God she talks.

Rumors say my goddess is seeing

The Gate to the Underworld's guardian

With the head of a jackal you can't miss

The hot Egyptian God, Anubis.

Pelting ice piercing a chill unto

the very heart of blizzards

on wings of purest white blending seamless amoungst

Gliding mountain storms above horizons, when

Everest was but a hill by correlation

Red as blood spilled by thousands,

Obsidian claws scratching territory betwixt

bellows of fire, blue-red-yellow evoking

jealousy from volcanoes' streaming lava

Translucent rainbows with a shine shaming Pyrite

eluding to the sky in but a glimpse of wonder

the master of a galaxy where the speed of light

is every movement grace

Multifaceted as the ocean hues of green and blue

splashlessly sending diamonds of sea dancing into the air, before

diving to depths we can but dream of

in a world beneath worlds

Golden beyond earthly words

Strikes of flashes riding lightning

zig-zagging with the electricity;

raindrops quaking to avoid the wake

the gray of thunder her mate

Emerald as the amazon

slinking from canopy to tropical ferns

Undetectable but for the blink of eye

Protector of the forest, vast ruler

to all who roam the woodland lush

I always held, 

deep within a heart of stone,

Some kind of kinship

A connection unknown

With the ones they call the gorgons.

They sit among

Humans, frozen in song, 

And let themselves believe

That nothing could be wrong. 

In that, we are the same. 

And yet,

When one stares into my soul, 

I find that I crack

Instead of freezing into a whole,

And lose myself in her spell. 

It is when

She looks away, 

That I fall,

Her ever-complacent prey, 

Into pits of snakes.

And here I lay,

Safe as sturdy stone, 

Yet I can never escape

The cracks that form of being alone

Without her enchantment to give me a home.

In this dark no light filters through

This infinite life is but torture without you

No shadows playing on the wall

No voices to reply when I scream or call

My body does not age but my soul grows old

My memories so clear creating pain untold

I sit in the emptiness of my own heart

Not knowing where it ends or when did it start

The bitter taste of iron lingers upon my tongue

The smell rising from the pools of blood that I sit among

This was once you and I wanted you forever

Our embrace entangled unbroken together

I could not stop I drained your very essence

Now all I feel is your disembodied presence

The love I had for you turned to greed

I took and I took until I felt I was freed

It was moments when we could have had years

Now I sit alone surrounded by all of my fears

Time never stops when you are all alone

Day by day my heart hardens turning to stone

© M.Withers/M.Strudwick . All rights reserved.

Both the name The EriduSerpent/EriduSerpent

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