October / by Kaylee Warner

The Lizard Wizard approaches the Veil
He carries a secret with him
He crossed the threshold a thousand times over
Between life and death and back to life 
What he could once see as solid truth wavers now 
The pumpkins grew larger than angry men, swallowing them  
The trees had silly faces and the walls grooved and smiled


But tonight he will bathe the blood off his skin 
As he says goodbye for one last time
The moss and mushrooms reach out to him, grasp him
The Lizard Wizard moves forward, unbothered.


The landscape ebbs and flows and morphs from
a scared opal to a bouquet of calendula to a rotting skull 
That the Raven sits on, belly laughing
He pauses but then begins to rock side to side 
A dark, eerie guitar drone is coming from within


He holds the tightly woven ball of all things evil 
He dances forward, into the darkness 
Into a place where there is no sound, nor ears to listen
And he whispers, it’s all but a dream