Longhorns sound,
the dancers enter the stage.
I know them,
under the massive masks
and glorious dress,
but when they dance
they really are
Bull and Stag.
No longer people
they are horses,
spectral shades,
Power and Obsession.
The drums sound
and I close my eyes.
Through my tissue lids
flashbulbs become fireworks
become lightning flashes
before the thundering skins
and as the storm passes
I open my eyes to two dancers.
Soon they will be Monks again
with faces I recognize
and names I know
but now
They are two skeletons
and one is looking at me.
From The Phoenix and the Dragon: Poems of the Alchemical Transformation by Adam Byrn Tritt, Smithcraft Press, 2007,