So hot and sticky
It’s easy enough to walk on air.
The night’s not black at all
I see now, it’s purple.

Warm velvet fog,
Diaphanous yet tangible
I can clutch it like cloth
And climb it like rope.

High above the jungle.
I see the hidden movements
Dreaming birds, monkeys debating
Ants discussing the industries of the day.
Fireflies swirl like worms through rotten driftwood
But faster.

A narrow path, phosphorescent with my new vision
Bounds a small train of men.
Shiny backs, tumplines, heavy loads.
But at the head, a small figure strangely huge
In my fledgling nightsight.
He looks up.
And sees me.
Somehow.

This is my adversary
But he can teach me worlds,
Realms unguessable.

I see that Knowledge
Has no kingdom,
Sorcery no province
Save the Unknown.

His eyes shine like liquid mirrors,
Quicksilver
Or Molten Gold.

He stretches out his hand.
I am pulled.
And fall
Into a new initiation.