In a small and ill-lit house near where the nightshade throngs
The sorcerer who sponsored me muttered ancient songs
Adorned with signs of every land, pentagrams and hexagrams
All symbols joined now held rank on his robe

In the pot went leaves and roots to form a noxious brew
The bitter sap of poppy plants, thickening to goo
Mushroom caps and mushroom stalks, specked like snow on blood
White trumpets, like stars penta-pointed, with their armored pods

Anointing myself with Sabbat salve, drinking the remnant down
I readied myself for flight and listened to the sound:

I was soma to the Brahmins
And ambrosia to Olympus
I was manna to lost Israel
And God's flesh before Columbus

Rapidly the walls recede
Dissolution to eternity
Within the eye of the Deity
Into thoughts' infinity

A door appeared in the seventh wall, I opened it and saw
The ghosts of long-dead friends and kin, from out of memory's fog
Disappearing, reappearing, they asked me of all things
And explained what they had meant in all those years before

Holding up his eye to see and speaking from his palm
In Mordor's tongue the sorcerer quoted David's psalms
The spiders skittered through the blood that's dripping down the walls
Feeling in me primal fear, I fled from out the hall

I ran into the forest, underneath the deadly nightshade
Past the shades and spirits that passed within the glade
In the field some hooded men gathered 'round a light
They saw me, drew me inward and made me join their rite

The men withdrew and in the fire a native princess stood
She made the stars come down to circle 'round her face
Standing there up in the air, she reached her hand to me
I could only watch and disappear in her embrace

Lost in the void, with only her eyes
She took my mind and spake:

I am soma to the Brahmins
And ambrosia to Olympus
I am manna to lost Israel
And God's flesh since Columbus

Walking nowhere, feeling nothing
Thou knowst where that would lead
Take my hand and come—
Fear's the bridge to the land of dreams

Now I am inside of thee
And thou art within me
Thou giv'st thyself to me in whole
And I shall keep thy soul.

I awoke I know not where, and I barely knew my name
I carry her spirit with me, and the world is not the same