the sibyl

she lives in a dank cave a hermit alone

a sibyl she is, and her mother the moon

stalagmites bonewhite drips overhead

if one falls on her head she'd be dead
she scries for the truth in indigo depths

visions forms in the water unbidden

she has to be vigilant or they stay hidden
stars are bound to her forehead

her lonely soul fed by messages from the dead

and a bed made of sharp thorns and dread
her bread dipped in the gall of foreknowledge

impotent to avert the catastrophes

that rises and beckons with skeletal fingers
she sees long dead armies marching

mouths agape in soundless screams of warning

the swift winds of pestilence and plague

that death sends to harvest untold innocents

to his lonely harsh breast in dark hades
and the last flickering of the flame of reason

as it slowly goes out in a world beset with demons

Written by Sybille

*The word sibyl comes (via Latin) from the Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess