Snuffed tapers sighed 
As Death left impressing 
His crest of cold tears on the Countess 

Benighted like ill-fated Usher 
The House of Bathory shrouded 
'Neath griefs dark facade 

If only I could have wept 
In mourning by Her side 
I would have clasped Her so tight 
Like storm-beached Aphrodite 
Drowned on Kytherean tides 

And Kissed Her 
For from Her alone 
My lips would have known 
Enigmas of shadowy vistas 

Where pleasures took flesh 
And pain, remorseless 
Came freezing the breath 
Of raucous life hushed unto whispers 

Benighted. 

Inhaling the pale waning moonlight that crept 
Through the crypt of Her Lord who so lucidly slept 

Benighted. 

Exhaling the wail of black widowhood's toll 
Waxing eternal night entered Her soul 


Now haranguing grey skies 
With revenge upon life 
Gnathic and Sapphic 
Needs begged gendercide 

Delusions of Grandier denounced the revolt 
Of descrying cursed glass, disenchanted in vaults 
Encircled by glyphs midst Her sin-sistered cult 

With hangman's abandon She plied spiritworlds 
To Archangels in bondage 
From light to night hurled 
Cast down to the earth where torment would unfurl....... 

But soon, 
Her tarot proved 
Hybrid rumours spread like tumours 
Would accrue 
And blight Her stars 
However scarred 
To better bitter truths 
Of cold bloodbaths 

As bodies rose 
In rigid droves 
To haunt Her from their 
Shallow burials imposed 
When wolves exhumed 
Their carthen wombs 
Where heavy frosts had laboured long 
To bare their wounds 

To the depths of Her soul they pursued 
Wielding their poison they flew 
Like a murder of ravens in fugue 

And knowing their raptures 
Would shatter Her dreams 
She clawed blackened books for damnation's reprieve 
Baneful cawed canons on amassed enemies 

So Hallow's Eve 
As She received 
Like Bellona to the ball 
Those enemies 
Fell-sisters heaved 
Her torturies 
Cross stained flagstones 
To Her carriage reined to flee 

But She knew She must brave the night through 
Though fear crept a deathshead o'er the moon 
Like a murder of ravens in Fugue 

For each masked, jewelled gaze held dread purpose 
Horror froze painted eyes to cold stares 
And even Her dance 
In the vast mirrors cast 
Looked the ill of Her future 
If fate feasted there.... 

In an age crucified by the nails of faith 
When rank scarecrows of christ blighted lands 
An aloof Countess born an obsidian wraith 
Dared the abyss knowing well She was damned 
Her life whispered grief like a funeral march 
Twisted and yearning, obsessed an entranced 
With those succumbing to cruelty 
Crushed 'neath the gait of Her dance 
A whirlwind of fire that swept through the briers 
Of sweet rose Her thickets of black thorn had grasped... 

She demanded the Heavens and forever to glean 
The elixir of Youth from the pure 
Whilst Her lesbian fantasies 
Reamed to extremes 
O'er decades unleashed 
Came for blood's silken cure 

But Her reign ended swiftly 
For Dark Gods dreamt too deep 
To heed Her pleas 

When Her gaolers were assailed 
With condemnations from a priest 
Who'd stammered rites 
In the dead of night 
For maidens staining winding sheets 

And She postured proud 
When Her crimes were trowelled 
And jezebelled to peasant lips 
Though She smelt the fires 
That licked limbs higher 
To the tortured cunts of accomplices 

So ends this twisted fable's worth 
And though spared the pyre's bite 
By dint of nobled bloodlined birth 
Her sins (crimes) garnered Her no respite 

Forever severed from the thrill of coming night 
Where slow Death alone could grant Her flight 

"The Spirits have all but fled judgement 
I rot, alone, insane, 
Where the forest whispers puce laments for me 
From amidst the pine and wreathed wolfsbane 
Beyond these walls, wherein condemned 
To the gloom of an austere tomb 
I pace with feral madness sent 
Through the pale beams of a guiltless moon 
Who, bereft of necrologies, thus 
Commands creation over the earth 
Whilst I resign my lips to death 
A slow cold kiss that chides rebirth 
Though one last wish is bequathed by fate 
My beauty shalt wilt, unseen 
Save for twin black eyes that shalt come to take 
My soul to peace or Hell for company" 

My soul to Hell for company