Flames licking around me
Drumming and strumming
Resonate through my head
Potent potion for an exile
Serpentine stones and oil
Greasy and warm on my skin
Whispers of heated debate wage
Tongues of fire and flesh, wag
All around, dancing in my head
Masks fell and voices faded
sparks died into quietness and ash
My heart and pulse louder inside
The watcher over me was motionless
Fevered and hoarse, aloud I cried
“Go to the edge of the camp
The lioness awaits her first kill.”
Bone tools and flint axes took flight
With warriors painted in blood and chalk
I fell back eyes glazed, almost lucid
The purr of the cat so loud in my head
Her hot breath caressed my neck and chest
The child walked past us and I screamed
Feeling her breath die within my heart
Weighted under claws, and a hoard of teeth
The beast took all our soul with her in flight
My voice hoarse and parched, and cracked
Alone in the void of mourning, in pain
No day or night saved me from the tears
hot coals carving into my face and eyes
The beast fell to late as hate and regret came
In her place with accusations in my head
Locked in a trance, its spell holding me
My spirit was captive not alive still in the cat
The watcher dressed me in paint for death
To fevered to hear the lies told around me
I was a shell, a body, my face a mask of death
A cold, terror stone in my hand, the heart
A bloody weight in my palm and mind
A kettle held a spittle with cat, I was trapped
Wails, and cries overtook the darkness
Still I was laid prone out on my back
No hand, no word, could still my limbs
Nor the eye from on high, or the force of the wind
In my last breath, I felt my heart again.
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