The Verses Slow And Sultry Now

The verses slow and sultry now Move as half opened lips Parched throats, faces of white, Fear entrenched where soldiers Thrived in channels, in tunnels, And in trenches The night had been there and a Passer-by half-drunk with Absinthe had spotted some white Into an otherwise dark relative Starless night that slipped Oily to a shore where waited Slowly a rats, three hedgehogs, Eight flowers that rose their Heads from the torpor of a waning Dusk A surfeiting it was that waned them all. Round after round of poisoned yew dews Drank in the Tavern below Olympus The night, one after one, he drank them In a gourd from broken coconuts: That had in them the incantations of A witches’ night: That had in them the seed of murky Mists and yellow perilous fright: The verses slow and sultry now Move as half opened lips Parched throats, faces of white, Fear entrenched where soldiers Thrived in channels, in tunnels, And in trenches