Nighttime Brigade Poems (1-6)

 This is a poem-cycle I composed concerning a story concept I have been working on for a while. In my mind, each (minus the first) should precede a major arc in the overarching narrative, but also foreshadow some of the central themes, motifs, and ideas of the coming text. The central characters are an automatist boy, his loyal friend, and the vampire mistress he yearns to serve.


NTB1

A solemn moon above the skyline
Gentle rainfall in my ears —
I am hope, I see the ever-distant dreamlands
I course through the City

Blood, that effervescent ichor
The amber roses in my veins
I hear it calling, I feel the urge
Fangs descend into my prey

I raise a flag of intervention
Within the night a roaring cry
I am war, rebellion of the ancients
I shall break the chains that bind

Ancient leeches rise against me
Threatening to end it all
I call them, those familiars
We shall bring justice,
We shall bring victory,
We shall answer the City’s call


NTB2 - Midnight Prank

I seek but do not find
Always treading the night without aim
I need purpose, I yearn for ignition
I am an engine, dormant;

I have dreamt of you,
I have seen you in my mind’s eye
I hear you, I feel the urge to
Serve you, to be your slave —
I desire the fruit of your bosom —

We begin our cat-and-mouse game
No more than that, a tryst,
A midnight prank we play on each other
A hopeless rondo, bloodless waltz,

And yet,
I long to touch you —


NTB3 - Blood Moon Waltz

We sink
Deeper into the pool of blood we
Sink —
Time, aeons spent in disillusion
I yet hear the lies —

I feel my heart flutter for you;
Burn, scalding petrol,
Melt and die for you —

Then why do you hide in her shadow?

We are imprisoned, a King watching in the dark;
One, two, three in circles,
Dancing in this blood moon waltz,
Under the placid crimson light —


NTB4 - Twilight Conspiracy

I need you!
I seek you through the eventide,
Into that crimson dawn
That rises in the hidden places
Far toward the skyline —

Let me live for you —
Twist, break, burn, and
Die for you;

Become my goddess,
Let me serve you and
Follow you,
To the ends of Heaven and pits of Sheol
Follow you,
To the core of your Heart —

String me,
Draw and pull on me,
Guide me through this twilight conspiracy,
Lead me to the End-time,
Beside you,
Never apart —


NTB 5 - Phantom Winter

First —
I miss you;
I am made lesser without you,
But I hate you:
Your foolishness betrays me,
Drives spines into my heart;
I am a victim, a worthless ragdoll
Blown into the concrete,
Forgotten in the City;
How I wish you were here —

Second —
I am sorry;
I failed you, my mistress,
And her;
I see your ghost, I hear your call
In this torpid phantom winter,
Blizzards of never-memories
And could-have-beens;

Third —
I whimper,
Whisper, and wilt,
Living for a century, and now
Nothing more than a willow,
A tired flower rotting,
Longing to see it through,
To guide it to the end —

Three-in-one we are united,
But the crimson dawn yet threatens to rise —
Oh how we long for that moonlit nighttime
That distant echo
Of our time together —


NTB 6 - Vanished Dawn

She died
I am broken in her wake
I can no longer feel like a man
Failure—

Mistress, Lady of Pains,
Why hast thou forsaken me?
I feel the resonance of your
Blood in my veins,
But your shadow no longer
Graces my mirrors; 

We had prayed for this time to come,
For the defeating of the Sun
But in the wake of this vanished dawn
No moonlight graces the City’s broken streets —

I need you, and her,
And yet I have nothing at all
Only whispered rumors and deceitful grins
Horrid mutations of the truth
Gleeful manglings of the truth
Nothing more than lies,
I hope

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