Twelve hours difference 
the same time of night.
Sister sun, father moon 
obliterate the hours 
into prisms colored 
white and fog.
The brain sludge, 
mind junk ripples 
in dazzling haze, 
a kaleidoscopic tapestry
inside cavernous deep. 
Stalactite ice grows
deathly teeth from 
ceiling to floor. 
Stalagmite pyramids 
to pray upon 
before impaling the spirit
with iridescent promises 
of carnal delight, 
and euphoric afterglow 
of coital conquest.
Bruises form, slowing the
blood into cracked sheaths 
of blackened tar that tricks
the travelers as they cross
the bridge of ignorance.
A slippery flow solidified 
slopes downward, too
fast for gravity to keep,
too welcoming for 
the conscience to deny.
A dull pain, muffled abrasion 
forms lesions on the skin, 
scars the passage to the heart,
shears it like razors and slice 
the discord evenly. Eyes lose 
harmony, travel separate 
and detached. An ocean 
crashes inside concrete skull, 
a heated, poisonous effervescence 
steaming from attention 
into dissociation and apathy.
The strings of memory fray,
unravel, unfasten shrinking 
the gut, the heart, and head.
No wonder, wander lost 
in frozen land. Recall 
the long lost foreshadow 
of a winter king amid 
the ice, and hold the flame
beneath glass chalice,
awaiting again the 
clouds of Jupiter 
to gather in storm
and perpetuate the surface
in storms vast and everlasting.
The monochrome veils of sworn
enlightenment speed up 
virtue’s desecration,
entrap the energetic upheaval 
once avowed to light, a bride 
to source, a corpse upon 
the seat of the soul. 

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“Black Orpheus: Crystalline Haze” is written by Michael Aaron Casares. All rights reserved.