Content Warning: themes of blood, grief, loss

Anthony Perconti – Somnonautika

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            In that other world, The Great Dreaming,

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I’ve searched high and I’ve searched low.

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Still to no avail.

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I wandered the Labyrinth, that vast circulatory system, 

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Of a fallen and disgraced Empyreanoid for decades.

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Traveled to New Venice and Anti-Venice,

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And sought counsel with its Guild of Invisible Cartographers to send me on my way.

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In filthy rags and half starved, I made obeisance to the Lords Zagar, Hypnos and Nott,

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In their shadowy temples. 

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We, the penitents sharing that familiar haggard expression on our countenances.

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In bazaars that stretch from horizon to horizon,

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On the outskirts of Euphemia,

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Millions upon millions did I encounter,

But not one of them was you.

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I broke bread with The Parliament of the Azure Suns,

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We talked at great length of their native Brane and the wonders therein.

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They wished me safe journeys and strong solar winds at my back.

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In the nameless tomb-city, its umbral denizens thronged and swarmed me,

Teeth gnashing and claws seeking,

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Scarlet furrows tracing my body, a roadmap of blood. 

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In the service of The Madonna of the Broken Sphere,

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I made away with a page of The Lost Purana,

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From the library of The Cosmic Engineer, 

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To barter for a scrap of information on your whereabouts. 

I count the hours until sunset.

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These last two years, since your passing have been unbearable, 

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In the quotidian, waking world. 

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The oneiric causeway stretches before me,

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A shimmering, prismatic ribbon. 

I will not rest until I look into your eyes,

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And hold you in my arms once more.