Blackness

      In the moment of darkness
            This steel
                  This sword           Its sharpness gleaming
This sword-formed cold steel, its sharpness gleaming,
                              Its lethal edge shining,
                  Entraps me.

      In the moment of darkness
            This arm
                  These veins              In blood-rhythm pounding
                  These pulsing veins, in blood-rhythm pounding,
                              With time's passage pounding,
                        Draw me.

      I have despaired — so passes the light from me.
            Evil compulsion a vision enforces:
                  A sharp-edged vision,
                                    And another that throbs.

            A serpent by a mirror entranced,
                  I await the prick of my fangs at my throat.