Eugene S.

Black Orchids

From out of the dark, did she come to mark one as unfortunate as me
Clutching orchids dark upon skin so stark, and vaguely shimmering
And so it began one night in the sand at midnight where twelve did stand eagerly waiting for thirteen

She traced out a star that looked like a scar in the helpless sands that be
In the heart of the scar that the petals would mar when they were laid so gingerly
Came a black twisted hand with the stench of the land in the darkening sand - marking the hour as thirteen

I did not go far from this scene so bizarre before the hand did land upon me
And out on this bar, none would hear my alarm in the watery world surrounding
All went black as my head did land in the darkened sand of this withering land at sea - all in the hour of thirteen

My thoughts were like tar out on the sandbar as I sluggishly tried to see
I heard from afar the sounds that would mar my future, my hopes, my dreams
A whisper, a name as I lay on the strand holding the hand of a lady of sand in the hour of thirteen

She left her mark with a hand so dark, I would never be able to retreat
The name she spoke out in the dark as she stood so starkly at sea
Would seal my fate as the man of the strand who lived in the sand of a vanishing land that she named Eugene

So if at sea you embark in the realm of the dark near the hour of thirteen
And a strand so stark where lay orchids so dark greet thee sweetly
No more will you see land except for this strand of sand where liest Eugene