The Sea of Flames

The sun is setting over this land of dread –
My soul sleeps, tortured and dim.
I see the light fading from the sky
And it is time to awaken.

I flee into the night and run from the known.
Trees now spires to the worlds above;
Shadows lurking into monsters they’ve grown;
I am prey for the hunt in this forest of old.

Under the stars I walked far and deep,
Out of fear for the owls that called
And the coyotes that creeped.
But on I went for my thoughts could not stop.

With only the light of the full moon to hide
I can open my eyes and see your face.
That is what blinds me, that fire, that stare.
So among these woods I bury my faith.

I wander into the brush, thick and sharp
There opened up a clearing, enclosed by the grim.
I stood centered within the ancients and
I swear in the silence I could hear the hymn.

These trees were not normal, nor divine
 Untouched by the demon, were these oaks of mine.
And with a magic of which I have seen no kind
A dark and evil power took control of my mind.

I stabbed my hand through the mud
And ripped from the earth, piles of sod.
No attention did I pay to dripping blood
Until a hole was forged, deeper than god.

Then with a stare so vacant and dazed
I looked in the pit dug at my feet;
Dark and endless, I could not move,
In it I leaped before I knew what to do.

I fell into darkness and for moments could not tell
If I was live or dead, feeling or numb
I twirled through nothing; doomed by a spell
Until I realized it was black – and that’s why I’d come.

From the space contained by this abyss
Emerged a shape, veiled by the murk.
Once closer it came its form hard to miss;
A fiery demon, straight from the Styx.

“Follow.” It commanded, “There is a beast you must slay.”
With no armor and sword I stand little chance,
“No weapons can stop your nemesis to-day.”
After this demon my trance made me go.

To the edge of a great cliff he brought me.
It was not water at the bottom, but a sea of fire -
I didn’t have to think; I knew it was hell,
“The choice is yours, what do you desire?”

I stopped at last and all was still –
Finally a moment to forget your pain
Frozen inside darkness, safe from the sun
Your face is gone, lest it make me insane.

I felt the force beyond which brought
Me to this place. Those flames tugged for my presence,
It was then that jumped, for I sought
That darkness to destroy my pain.

Next thing I knew I was standing in the woods
Stared upon by the circle of oak,
That is when it hit me – I understood;
In the sea of flames I now float.