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Knight draped in diminishing white slain:

left rot in dyke bereft anymore of hauke, of hound, of mate.

Scavengers making mane; contemplating take.

Horse robbed of complexion led on to pastures Eden-lush.

Blue eye in beak. Blonde lock—nest’s weave.

Form bared by force and beast.

Hatchet sunk deep in the skull of an old friend;

skeleton slumped: overgrown by bramble and vine

chattering at flora and fauna alike.

Spitting a whisper. Howled mantra.

Drug into the lull of a chant carried on an acrid wind.

Root binds the soil.

Pass slicked in witch mother’s milk

gorged on honeydews from infernal terroir.

Dans le feu. Sans la gloire.

Sacred river Alph runs red:

may every water body follow suit,

then dry to dust and cracking bed.

Pearled bone. Quenched suns.

Damage image. Man-made scar mirage.

Oases pepper a sprawling manifold of hells;

homes to unspoiled milks and sweetest honeys.

Shattered desert visage unveiled by blistering storms of sand.