Plunged into a chasm of horrific visions,
A cursed crucible of hell,
Flooded with the eternal tears of mortal terror,
I saw a demonic gothic dungeon guarded by a litany of demented and deranged executioners,
Their ragged shoes slopping through rain-churned mud and rank rotting rancid entrails –
Dank stone walls echoing their dissonant clanging bellows of sadistic pleasure,
And the brutally cruel humiliation and savage torture of degraded enslaved prisoners,
Their gaping gangrene wounds gushing toxic blood,
As sinister vultures squawk and circle overhead,
Mournfully dancing through the muggy suffocating air,
Like ballerina puppets consumed by a gluttonous lust for trembling flesh –
I saw old roaming nomads pathetically grovelling in the grotesque gutter,
Begging for sumptuous alcoholic poison and savagely charred human flesh,
Their harrowing eye sockets secreting clumpy acrid discharge,
Their bruised bloodied testicles slathered in virginal chambermaid’s slobber and blood,
Their primitively pierced tongues salivating with sadomasochistic lust for deranged sexual delight,
Their coarse peasant hands desperately clutching rusty iron pitchforks and clattering serrated axes,
Seeking to satisfy their unquenchable cravings for gruesomely deformed sex slaves and occult ceremonial crucifixions –
I saw destitute castrated peasants desperately yearning for pure salvation in their cruel delusional dreams,
Wherein they’re exultantly ripped from the ruptured fabric of reality,
And metamorphosed into a sacred white rose,
Swaying gently within a mythologically bucolic and fragrantly scented willow grove,
Only to reawaken into their hellish nightmare reality,
With feverishly twitching fingers,
And sinewy spasming neck muscles rolling to the rhythm of their writhing despair –
I saw miserable slimy gutter urchins collapsed beside vile venomous vermin and filthy cretinous ogres,
Their foul stench rising like a cursed phantom of gloom into the toxic atmosphere,
Hopelessly mired in unutterable omens of decay and the searing scars of sorrow,
Their pungent flesh drowning in the dank scent of smouldering charcoal,
And the repulsively fragrant aroma of torrid blood and acidic sweat,
Like the companionship of a sadistic clown and harrowingly hideous wretch,
United by their gluttonous blood lust –
I saw rustic straw-thatched cottages engulfed in monstrous raging flames,
And sorrow-stricken faces contorted with unbearable grief and blood-curdling anguish,
A colossal crescendo of guttural shrieks cascading through the wild war-ravaged pastures,
As ominous ravens cast their predatory gaze upon the decimated valley of ancient prophesied destruction –
Poem by Stamos Mardou