The Alchemy of Death

I awaken
the dark night swirling about me
shutters banging squarely against
the steel gray house
the room is so black
I can't see even the outlines of
walls or windows,
only the shuddering of the glass and panes
as the unseen dragon
breathes hard

I hold desperately to the.
bed, But he breathes
me right through the flower-papered
plywood and into a
swirling vortex of tree branches
and brook pebbles and
sharp icicle from the edges of
the black roof

I Swirl
and scream as I see
faces watching from the attic
window
scaring me more than the encompassing
breath now controlling me,
as those attic windows are
accessible only from the
red door in my bedroom,
my bedroom whirling
away from me now

I rise with the eddy
shielding my face from the
flying debris
I look deep into the
fearful blackness of the trees
The abyss that lays hidden
from our usual walking paths
and the old dry well
where I used to play
pumping and pumping the pump
sometimes daring myself to look
with forboding into
the hole between the ancient,
splintered boards
Monsters lived down there
I knew this for sure as my skin
shivered and I ran for my life
to the swing in
the sunny clearing

The dragon's breath carries me higher
and I see the clouds
suddenly silver in the
new moonlight
I duck
and dodging the
shiny
sharp icicles flying like
spears through the whirlwind
And still I yell, but still there is no sound
coming from my lips,
the fear too great,
the noise too loud.

Then
my limbs break free, finally exhausted
from their quivering
crouching,
They fling themselves
wildly about, twisting my torso,
contorting it until my stomach
almost retches
and then I
slowed
and floated,
the tornado changing into a
breeze
tumbling me down into the pearlescent snow,
deep with crystalline structure,
deep and shiny, sparkling flakes
sharp against my cheek
and I sink further down
with not even a sound from the
wind
only the searing of the dragon's red growing
eye, burning my bleeding cheeks
forcing my eyes closed against the
blaze, reducing my eyelids to ash,
searing my shoulders,
my breasts,
my heart...

My scorching heart

This body jolts awake,
running into his room

Dawn breaks,
light blankets his gray body

He is gone