the ritual

In this world I settled in, removed my gloves and blinked hello to all these pilgrims and their woes I pleased my senses and felt at home, and suddenly transpired to go out again.

Through the crowd and out the door, the world I'd had existed no more. New and refreshed I traversed the streets seeking to greet the stranger within.

He and they and us and I gathered underground, below the picturesque sky. Slowly the night went, building a world from which, later, I escaped again.

Down the cobblestone and up the steps, the air seemed clear and free of regrets. Pipes ahead and tantalizing drums, the rhythm of a spell here hums.

Reality shifts with me, it is darker still until a light, lapis and bright, Bubbles and broils on this unholy night.

A song for this devil, this muddled mind an incantation witnessed, accepted, and kind.