Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Night-Gaunt
I
Among innumerable mountains of madness,
The only moving thing
Was the tail of the night-gaunt.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a madman
Tickled by three night-gaunts.
III
The night-gaunt whirled in the Ngranek winds.
It was a small part of the Dreamlands.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a night-gaunt…
Ouch.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The haunter of the dark,
Or the horror at Red Hook,
The night-gaunt writhing
Or just after.
VI
Dusk filled the perilous eyrie
With daemonic damp.
The shadow of the night-gaunt
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Kingsport,
Why do you dream of white mist?
Do you not see how the night-gaunt
Lurks around the caves
Of the hoary form of Nodens?
VIII
I know yellow masks
And putrid, inescapable flute-sounds;
But I know, too,
That the night-gaunt is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the night-gaunt flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many Zoog rings.
X
At the sight of night-gaunts
Flying in a green light,
Even the dholes of Pnath
Would wax emphatic.
XI
He rode over Baharna
In a tethered zebra.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The wings of some insect
For night-gaunts.
XII
The Skai is moving.
The night-gaunt must be plunging.
XIII
It was evening all eternity.
It was dank
And it was getting dank.
The night-gaunt whirled
In the primal mist.
Illustration by Brian Elig.
(Click on image above to see at full scale.)
For more, see the I Speak Fluent Giraffe Index.
