[The Cage of Darkness][29th April 1978]

[Redbook2:117A-C][19780429:2040][The Cage of Darkness][29th April 1978]

19780429.2040

(Copy)

The Cage of Darkness

The cage of darkness, golden-barred,

Descending, parts the writhing clouds

Of purple, trembling still unseen

Within the rhythmic drum.

Lights pulsating catch the cage

And cast the shadows multiplied

In long, distorted overlap

Against the cavern wall.

The crowd roars Death! – and stands to see

The shadows move within the cage –

And silent stands, to see the thing

Of Darkness which they made.

The cage sinks to a sawdust floor

Within a steel and silver frame

In which a naked girl-child stands

Bound by her wrists, alone:

A silver circlet binds her hair;

Between her childish breasts, the Cross

Catches the light reflected in

Her quiet glistening tears.

She sees the Darkness caged within,

And turns beseeching eyes upon

The shifting crowd, who murmur from

A blankness of dead eyes.

Her head droops to her golden Cross;

The silence calls the silver gong:

She lifts her chin, and stares into

The blackness of the cage.

The gong! The cage flies open! Wide

The eyes draw out the Darkness: give

The Substance for the Forming, and

The Structure to the Fear.

The Darkness grows enveloping

The golden cage; it spreads across

The sawdust, to the limits of

The steel and silver frame.

The Darkness glows: a shifting fire

Becomes the semblance of an eye,

A dark red Eye which turns throughout

The frame, and finds – the girl.

The Darkness boils, and grows within

The binding steel and silver bars;

The Eye grows bright, and rises, and

Advances on the girl.

The girl stands: with unwavering gaze

Through tears she meets the glowing Eye

Surrounding her with darkness; and –

In darkness it is held:

The glowing, all-consuming Eye

Is held within the girl-child's gaze –

Is met by Certainty, in doubt,

And caught by Love-in-Death.

The Eye's released! The fire stirs:

The flame dissolves, divides and turns:

A hundred flames divide and turn

And glimmer out between the bars:

Ten thousand flames soar darkness out

Over the whimpering, fading crowd:

The girl-child, naked and alone,

Weeps for an end to innocence.

19780429.(2240c?)

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