Dolores: Le Sang de Notre-Roi Impérissable

[*Charybdis]

((Adapted from the poem by Algernon Swinburne: Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/swi ... lores.html ))


Le Sang de Notre-Roi Impérissable

Cold skin awaits the Blood to rise
Hard fangs of venom in wait;
Allied to He who shall return
Secretive, the passion to wake;
When the parts are reformed with purpose
What revenge, Sisters all three, one again
Be ware then of your namesake, Dolores,
Our Lady of Pain.

[*Charybdis]

Three witches the Serpent created;
But the Coven, in number more,
Three Bloods, charged with protection;
For the parts to even the score,
Fierce new Heart, for to find, ever harder,
And the limbs to complete and control
All the joys of the flesh, brought together
To return the King to his soul.

[*Charybdis]

O leather not red but blooded,
O pool where all men may bathe,
O collar not of lace, but ensorcelled
By blade that drinks deep to enslave;
O mystical exotic of the star fallen,
O queen of gold and disdain,
O consort of fiend no longer,
The lady of pain.

[*Charybdis]

O rubies full of lust and of laughter,
Curled chain that snakes upon breast,
Bite hard, to leave mark ever after
And press with new lips where once pressed.
Wouldst thy cry roar and rise up at the pressure,
Thine eyelids too moisten and burn;
Blood feed thee and fill thee with pleasure,
Pain will come in its turn.

[*Charybdis]

The wine flows as parts share in reformation,
The rarest of vintages to sup,
To bring to the Serpents creation,
Misty red and enigma in cup.
Sister drinketh and toast, Teeth touch glass,
While berks may watch in vain,
Of the betaloned Blood with class,
This lady of pain.

[*Charybdis]

Oathsworn draw blood for the Coven,
Cut of symbolic intent,
Pledge of part then interwoven,
Traditional belief departed for blend.
Search for secrets and lore that will offer,
Knowledge to exploit weakness within,
Thy realm will surely proffer,
The key for Him.

[*Charybdis]

Belief shapens and rules thrice led,
Another whose name tongues still fear ever to speak,
Crushed once by the Mistress, dormant and dead,
Til Whispers of One wake more kinned faithful from sleep.
Powerful, holy the gates open to Ancient and dark lust,
A Serpent's quest to join across plane,
Resources offered thee for the taking a must,
O lady of pain.

[*Charybdis]

((ooc excerpts from original, relevant, adapted slightly))

Who gave thee thy wisdom? what stories
That stung thee, what visions that smote?
Wert thou pure and a maiden, Dolores,
When desire took thee first by the throat?
What bud was the shell of a blossom
That all men may smell to and pluck?
What milk fed thee first at what bosom?
What sins gave thee suck?

We shift and bedeck and bedrape us,
Thou art noble and nude and antique;
Gold lingers in thy art and in iris,
Thy scent of exotic mystique.
We play with light loves in the portal,
And wince and relent and refrain;
Loves die, and would see thee immortal,
My lady of pain.

[*Charybdis]

By ravenous lips urging, retaking,
Joining charm of palm hit to cheek,
By the Blood flow surging, awaking,
A Styx-sotted weakling from sleep.
In the daytime thy voice shall go through him,
In his dreams he shall feel thee and ache;
Thou shalt kindle by night and subdue him
Reform and remake.

[*Charybdis]

And they laughed, changing hands in the measure,
And they mixed and made peace after strife;
Ice melted to fire, and was pleasure;
Death mingled with Blood, and was life.
Like lovers they danced and tingled,
In the icey black mists about Kain;
In her firelight they murmured and mingled,
O lady of pain.