digigoth: a spellbook for the new sorcerer (new work 9)
This narrative recently divided into two paths and the reader was given a choice:
1. To follow the Dangling Yarn
2. To follow the Sinking Lure.
This poem immediately follows the Dangling Yarn (part 7).
Read previous pieces here
This book is winging through the ethers in search of an illustrator and a publisher. If you are interested, please drop me a line.
How to read the pieces from this book:
1. Click on the embedded link to the [music] in the title of the poem.
2. Listen on repeat while reading.
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Fig 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34. Remembering [Playlist: Tool, Lateralus]
as in all transitions from light to dark
at first there seems nothing but dark
this is the moment when most turn back
and so the dark remains
a threshold
beyond which
every fear fattens on shadows
mind your step
he says, opening a hatch in the deck
taking my hand as we descend
down and left
down and down again and always left
until I am dizzy with twist
and my head folds forward into a dive
toward my left shoulder
nothing in any direction but
heavy air and each
solid step rising to meet
the foot reaching
faster his voice distant, dim
down and left though rough fingers
laced with mine drag
an arm that must be mine though it seems distinctly
down and
left
of me
this floating head
or headless knowing
sense not pulled down to an object but
everywhere at once trying to condense
against a rising scent that’s growing loud
like sun heating asphalt
after heavy rain down and left of
a string of days being plucked
before now soon and never chord
a sting of yellow pink and pinker deeping down red of light through eyelids
together blinding line of bright
a level spinning end over end
into a dive down and left toward
the strip of light beneath a door
whoa, steady
he opens a door into a room lying on its side
pressing my head gently against his chest
as the walls distort and twist
though easing with each of his heart’s pulses
my body
seems not yet to have returned to feeling
and the sunlight makes no sense
we should be deep below decks
look there
he says
his voice muffled
strange and large
his finger pointing straight ahead
against the light into
the gently swaying surface
of a mirror
the plucked and battered raven gazing back
from the folds of a coat as his hand reaches to extract me

