**Midnight Musings

[Sileauniamh]

'Tis done! -I saw it in my dreams:
No more with Hope the future beams;
My nights of happiness are few;
Chill'd by misfortune's wintry blast,
My dawn of life is overcast,
Love, Hope, and Joy, alike adieu! -
Would I could add gold Remembrance too...

The timid candlelight risked stealing across the muse's face as a mournful winter sigh came in through the window. It played like a demon bard's fingers across the sculptural, achingly pale planes of his features. Lips were bloodless and sombre in design, but honeyed with poetry, poisoned with sin. His eyes were like crushed lapis with a subtle tone of silver, and in their profound depths all the
cataclysm-wracked hopes of the Mediterranean brooded. And his hair was like Midnight, a silky profusion clipped to his marble-defined jaw that contrasted starkly with his snowy flesh.

A sweep of one sleek hand quelled the flame; nails flashed like Venetian glass, and then greedy darkness stole over the small room in the Claw and Cross. The lithe muse eased from his repose at the desk and carved a graceful, macabre path for the narrow window, darkness undulating around him with each satiny gesture.

There was only silence and the charming beauty of a cold night bejewelled with lazy patterns of snow. From their raven fringe of downcast lashes those enigmatic eyes lingered out on the vast and untamed sea, caught under the spell of a clandestine memory. With a subdued sigh burnt with the fevers of yesterday, he lowered his head before the window, appearing only as a forlorn silhouette and its pale bride Melancholy to the scattered people below.



Originally posted Date: 11 Jan 2000 15:25:12 EST, Mintiper.