I.

He came to me and spoke.
His words were indistinguishable.

A great fire extended from his heart to mine.

I knew then to turn around.
As I did, I saw six million marching men.
They were holding their disembodied heads.
Each wore a somber expression.

I asked who they were.

The man said to me in a language I did not know,
that they were victims of the mislead.

I asked then, who was responsible and he just laughed.

As he chuckled, the ground gave way,
and great tremors moved the mountains.

I fell then for an eternity
into the deepest pits of despair.

Finally, I was alone,
but unable to tell
if I was still falling.

All was darkness.

---

II.

As I existed there,
I began to see with eyes I never knew.

Before me, stood
a man dressed in a dark suit,
with a skull cap.

He could not keep form.
He was the transforming man.
I saw flashes of faces upon him;
howling in scorn and pain.

The man then spoke to me
with 10,000 tongues.

He said,

“My name means many, and I am as old as time itself, and so shall you be.”

He taught me then,
the arcane secrets,
and taboo sciences, that
my ancestors once knew.

I asked him what it was all for,
and he spoke to me
in the voices of my mothers,

“Action is what
the earthly world needs.
The brush is now
your voice
and your sword.
Go and paint as you see fit.
Do not stop. Do not detour.
Your action is needed.
Go forth and never forget:
You are a Child of Saturn.”

---

III.

Thus I awoke, in a cold sweat,
in a bed that was not my own,
alongside a familiar woman
I felt love for,
but could not identify.

She turned toward me.
She had fair skin and light hair.
I gazed into her eyes which were as blue as mine.

She spoke,

“Son of my Sorrow,
remember my image.
For you will not see me again,
but I will be watching you.”

With her final word, space and time collapsed.

I awoke alone in the darkness of my bedroom. Revitalized.

---

Vison of Tellus, 2016
lithography print