I've Seen Madness

She met me on a thousand nights of winding roads,

riding cloud dragons dancing in fire,

breathing ice into my veins

and coal into my soul — night

after night after

night — she rip-tore into my core,

brought me crawling to my knees,

too frozen to even bleed.

Yes — I've seen Madness, in all her electric

synaptic glory, that as mighty fulminations

would strike me, relentlessly — night

after night after

night — but oh, how I would fight

despite limbs so worn,

mind torn, heart shorn

of hope — naked in vulnerability,

fighting eternal sky battles nightly,

with a beast so unbeatable — night

after night after

night — I would fall only to rise weary,

to mend wings from broken

and again, fight on — night

after night after night…

Yet, somehow in the here and now,

half a world away,

She seems almost illusory:

a manic misty memory — a Muse,

that from a distance

can be clearly seen

for the beauty

She imbued to me — and night

after night after

night — I wonder secretly, almost longingly:

When will I see her again?