The twilight city is what you bring to its streets… brothels, alleys, speakeasies, a wasteland of your own making. I’m in over my head, but this is the last trench, where the weak die and the strong rise. I learned how to fight, how to scheme, how to lie with my eyes. The Gambler, the Nightmare Man, turned me into a weapon, pointed right at the heart of the city itself. I could have fled, could have let the streets burn, but I knew he would never come with me. Shift was incapable of flight. Invictus Extremis, and as hardboiled as they come. Love is expensive my pretties, and the sales tax is a killer.
My lipstick goes on smooth, red and vibrant, the slinky dress hugging my body a warning to anyone looking to get in my way. Shift is in the street, the trench knife sharp enough to cut soul from flesh, ready to strike the moment we exit the theatre, ready to spill His blood to the cawing of the black birds. My plans are set, my schemes plotted, my charms well-hidden beneath vice and skin. Such fools we are, mad with love and without care for the perilous deeds to be done. Tonight is the night.
THE NIGHTENGALE’S PLAYLIST
This is my Magick
Drumbeats in my ears matching rain on the pavement
The heresy in my eyes hidden by sunglasses after dark
My tools hang from my side
And I walk without care because now I know what I am living for
This is where I make my stand
The in-between places call to me like old friends
Unseen worlds masquerading as alleys, tunnels, and the forgotten places of the world
Nothing can take the light away
It lives in this place
And it shines through me
Where there is mystery and wonder you will find me close
Here Gods walk as homeless men
Addicts and whores do battle against unspeakable evils
Old things walk in new skins
Telling the stories that will save the world
This is sacred ground
You have been warned
The Black Rose
Once I told you there were no regrets and no goodbyes
You answered with a kiss
I walked away from you
And into the dark heart of that bitter swamp
Enfolding me with its streets of shadows
Covering my tracks with cooking smells and rot
Sometimes I dream of those Creole nights
And I can see her standing there
Her short red hair and green velvet dress
A spirit of the city
Come to see whose feet tread so lightly upon her cobble-stoned streets
Morning
Slender fingers touch my own
I remember the snake path
And the murder goddess in your eyes
I move across fields and mountains
I cross deserts and forge rivers
Still I can feel you
There
Behind my eyes
Caressing my heart with the tongue of a thousand lifetimes
Stealing the breath from my footprints
Together
Always one step ahead and one step behind
I shake the dew from my hair
And join her by the cooking fire
Flatbottom Blues
Green leaves and butterflies
Do they know who comes near
So many bricks lost in the storm
We buried the old man on the hill
I will never tell
That doesn’t mean it will stop hurting though
The hay needs bailing and momma’s got supper on the table
So me and the boy say goodnight to the hanging tree
There are a lot of bad things down in those swamps
But like I said
I’ll never tell
Mutual Annihilation
Sliding through the club maze
The pulse of life all about me
Always seeking
Hunting that one frequency that means release from my pain
A selfish hunger I must feed
Pounding music in my ears as I become the silent pillar amidst a sea of sweat and motion
Our eyes meet and the world shrinks into my gaze
You can feel my hands on your sides from behind you
You fight to run yet you crave my danger
I am the insolvable equation
The unasked question in you throat
And the slithering serpent of my spirit will burn away your fear and doubt
Like a sacrifice to dead gods we meet in a brutal embrace
Alone in the Dark
Something in the snow
A presence in my mind as he walks towards me
In his hand I see the chalice
And from his lungs the words I have longed to see
A song in my throat as I beg for my secrets
Only now do I see the shadows that hide his face
The Far Shores of the West
The arrows take flight
They cut through the shadows at my heel
Whispering hope into my heart
Steering me clear of danger
And though death comes upon a foul wind
The White Ships carry me swiftly to paradise
Dream Not Dream
Fireflies in my gut
The sickness of a thousand years
Crawling on my skin are the nightmares of generations past
Who is it that sings to me in the moonlight?
The thing that has dragged me from my sleep to sup at the table of thieves
I am the Midnight Duchess
So I play the part of the Fool
Tuck me in again won’t you?
It’s so cold outside
And I‘m afraid to be alone
Sigil
Your radiance is in my heart now
The only warmth in my cold watchtower
I can see my love stretching in all directions
I exult in my pattern of pain
Those flesh-hooks that bind my spirit
Painting beautiful lives with my blood
This is the price I begged to pay
The snow covers my mistakes
I pray with my tears as they become the flowers that fall about you
And I remember why I came
Nemesis
From my perch I can see the glitter of hope
And the silent enemy that stalks it
As I turn from words still wet with life’s ink I can feel its breath upon my cheek
I run through chapters
And yet it follows
I hide in paragraphs and hurl at it sentences of desperation
But still it captures me
Snaring me in its vice
You cannot escape me it whispers in the dark
But I do not hear it
Already I am plotting the pages of my escape
Street Magick
Liquid words flow through me like silent blue lightning
The crystal droplets that wash away the stains of the city
The drug that brings me back to myself
I answer questions with bullets as I go melodic
Enraptured because I am fundamental change incarnate
I am the back alley sentinel and the penthouse mystic
Shadows melt and secrets ignite to the break beats of my power
The chaos factor in this static labyrinth of glass and steel
Watch closely and you will learn how to change the world
But do not linger
Lest you be forced to make a deal with a dragon
Dominion
The whitewashed walls that define my prison are bare
My murals of hatred no longer mar the rooms of their creation
The stigmata of rot has been swept away by cunning hands
I watch with hollow eyes as others take my place
Has it been so long?
I am cold and alone
Dangerously jealous of their warmth which I cannot share
This was not a happy place
I mean to keep it that way
The white paint cracks as something underneath begins to stir
Once Remembered
Spirits of a land lost speak to me through my headphones
A sister to the streets of history
Alleyway shamans brew the potions that bring me to god
The rave beats of my people as they dance the world clean of its sorrows
Guns come at me from shadowed corners
The rain stick my one defense against the dry spell in our religion
I know what the vermin have seen from their burrows that tunnel under your evil empire
Seek my life because I know who you are
Step to my razor and make my name live forever
Talking to the Mirror
So many mistakes
So many disappointments
Living a life that was forced upon me
My bloody teeth and the world that keeps hitting me in the face
I take my trials in stride
Though sometimes anger becomes the killer in my skull
Crying for release
I am stronger than you
Because isn’t might right?
Bullets in my brain
Pushing me to the edge
Everyday tripping into the next
Love is the stain on the floor that won’t come out
Damn you for being so wonderful that I don’t have the strength to give up
Open Mic
All I need is an audience
Validation because someone else is looks me in the eye and says
I suffer too
Hung on a pole like I’m alone
Hands on my ears to shut our your sympathy
I need my fear
Something that tells me what is real
On the day that the sun does not rise
OM
My fury is my pleasure
There is a jewel at the center of the lotus
A hatred and the will to use it
Gnashing my teeth in the effort not to smile at my own black comedy
The Baron
There’s a hunger in the whimpers of victory
Steel scaffolding hides the menace that stalks the boiler room
Don’t fall asleep
Hands pitter-patter on pipes under my feet
Spindly ghosts and my grandmother’s marmalade
Confusion runs like rain in a gutter
Shuffle and sigh while the masters decide your number
The man with the top hat smiles
The coming of chaos means his work is done
It Came from the Shallows
Thunder on the edges of the marshlands
Salt in the air bites my senses
What comes at us through the murky waters?
Engines of escape churn the mud
Harpoons scream at the deep
There are things best left in the frontiers
I fall in the wake of its evolution
Trapped by the cage of my prejudice
Hunting the lies in my soul
It will steal your memories
Jaws open wide to suck in the sins of the blind
What makes the end so hard to accept?
Color changes to red
Muscles slacken and will not serve me
Cornered by illusions as the stagnant water fills my lungs
The Fair Folk
I watch from my perch as the bright people revel in the light
Smiles and joy so abundant
They seem to drive away the shadows that wait in the hard rain of the real world
For tonight there are no monsters
Problems and worries are checked at the door
All enjoy the comfort of good company
Pretending that the world isn’t so vast and frightening
Whoever said that disillusionment was the joy of enlightenment was a thief and a liar
The Occult Underground
Behind sunglasses worn at night
Hidden in the pages of books ancient and new
Down alleyways and on dark streets
Buried in the broken languages of madmen
The real world bubbles up from the cracks in your ignorance
The secret world lives
Dancing in the shadows
Victories and defeats
Dramas and tragedy
All go unseen under the awareness of the self-appointed masters
My devil’s cloak covers my true name as I move among the blinded legions
Footsteps echo in the halls of dream and spirit
The fate of everything balances on the blade of encrypted truths
Open your eyes
The world is not the veil that obscures your perceptions
Stand up and be counted among the lights that burn away the darkness
Seeker
I move silently through the tangled wood
Keeping to the path of the quarry I never hope to find
Somewhere in the silent trees the hunter awaits
We three who play the game of nature
The green grass is cool under my feet
A subtle reminder that life always endures
The stone maiden gives me nectar from the heartspring
My arrows fly straight and true
Prayers to hold you up when you fall
The Shrouded Glen
The green man has led me here
This hidden sanctuary
He knows what doom seeks me on the road
My weary bones laid to rest as I continue my journey
Tree and leaf reach out to me
Holding their wayward son
A bird lets loose her song
The warning of danger near
I pull on my boots and draw up my cloak
Shadows enter the clearing to find it empty
A soft breeze the only sign of my passage
Wic
His beard obscures the frowning old man inside his eyes
Holding up dead spirits with a walking stick
Grumble grumble
Always drawing on that damn pipe
Bringing chaos with him
Never early
Never late
Never on time
And bugger you if you don’t like it
He walks his own way from the beginning to the end
Wizards do that sort of thing you know
A Moment’s Reflection
The rain softly drums upon my hooded brow
A small constant on this tumultuous path
The air is fresh and cool
Not like the clinging odor of the crypts that lay behind me
The water runs rivulets about their cold stones
The epithets of days gone by
Now choked with lichen and mold
There is a peacefulness here
In the mud and creeping roots of the past
But for the open graves and the ichor upon my chipped blade
One would almost never know what horrors once filled this place
I gently close the cemetery gate and leave this place to its well-deserved rest
Tides of Grey
Sealed in winter’s soft kiss
The skeletons wait buried in my heart
Swirls of color wash out the vandalizing madmen
Beautiful boys on the beaches
Never singing again
Hold me close Babylon
This time it looks like the sacred clowns are going to win
Revolt in an Alien Tongue
I remember you sometimes
Teeth in my skin
The way you smiled at the bar
Clotted wounds crack as I move
She took your picture I think
Toes crushed by the weights I carry
So many yea
rs I should have slain
Scars on my lips as others kiss them
I know you can see what others don’t
That’s what makes your smile so hollow
You see it don’t you?
Taste my tears and walk on traveler
Just pass me by
Sliding upwards into infinity as the lights play across dark fields
Push
Streetmen preach the gospels of war
Worshiping the plastic gods
Monsters in the sky
Death in the glowing eyes of the jungle
The monkey god has come for his children
Morphic resonance
Rotted fruit in unknowing hands
Too many permutations
My primitive mathematics fail me once again
Voices in every window
The eyes that hang in the air
Behind the wheel I begin to scream
Morphine
Snakes slither over smooth skin
Her lips full like blood
Hair teases my flesh like a promising whisper
Hidden in her hands is the fruit of sweetness and decay
Warned from birth of its passionate perils
Yet still I walk through the grove towards my doom
Her beauty is my beacon
Dragging me down into the hungry soil
I am seduced in my thoughts long before my eyes can betray me