Kings & Monsters Poem by Dean Meredith

The madman
Slowly reads himself
Into the story

The fetid toad
Looks itself
Into the mirror

The flames
Are risen again
And flaring

From glow
To flicker
To insensate heat

Their paths contained
And righteous
With restraint

A horse hair
Whispers
As it goes

And what of this dark wood?
Lit by fire
To shine a way

Toad and madman
See crawling things
See wings

Embers fly
Only …
To be taken

The blow
Of freedom
From the haunting hearth

Little kings
Mistaken
By a raging God

Swollen saps expand
Then pop
Then seep to ground

A maiden's voice
Is heard
The wind says nothing

Their watering hole
Their mirror
Records the night

And there she is again
Did you not hear this time?
Toad

Climb into my mirror
She says
I willingly oblige