In Fits of Wildest Dreaming

by KA Opperman

                                                  Art by Drew Roulette

In fits of wildest dreaming,

When demons all were teeming,

And scheming

To conquer midnight's throne,

I tossed in deepest slumber,

Through nightmares without number,

To cumber

The more, with awful groan,

My bed of silken scarlet.  

A harpy-wingèd harlot— 

A starlet

From courts of white Selene—

Seemed hellishly to hover

About me like a lover,

And cover,

With kisses so obscene,

My body, helpless sleeping!—

It seemed that she was reaping,

And keeping,

My soul with every kiss!

The succubus embraced me,

In ghostly beauty faced me,

To taste me,

And let me dream of bliss.

But there was scarce of pleasure, 

No amorous red measure

To treasure,

Within my poisoned pulse;          

For restless woes and worries

Swirled round me like lemures,

Or flurries                                     

Of leaves that soon convulse      

In graying autumn grasses,

As pensively there passes

Of lasses

The saddest of them all—

Poor Vespertina's specter,

When purple dusk has decked her,

Her nectar

Gone all to bitter gall.

And all the ghouls were howling,

The moonlit tombs befouling—

An owling

Made much of mournful moan—

When I was wildly dreaming,

And demons all were teeming,

And scheming

To conquer midnight's throne.    

Click Image Below to read

The Devouring Serpent
by Shaun Lawton

on the FREEZINE of

Fantasy and Science 

Fiction 

Chief Shamaniac

painting by

Drew Roulette