Between dust and mirrors
I carried silent letters,
wrapped in paper made of mist and waiting,
not filled with confidence—
but with enchantments.
I did not know, yet I knew.
The Sun had greeted me,
upright, high—
as in those cards that never lie.
And I walked,
through the lower kingdom of the nameless city,
through the fractures of reality
none of my sages could explain:
a black swamp,
where humanoid larvae and shrieking wraiths
bared their shadowy teeth
and brandished blades in the rancid air.
All was corrupted.
All was decay.
Creatures of the underworld
called me bright star,
tried to seize me,
to drain the last whole word from my lips.
But I walked still,
even with the Chariot reversed,
even as the Hanged Man spoke from his unseen cross,
even as the Moon, askew,
laughed behind her veil of deception.
I walked on,
I proceeded with endurance
carrying my letters of destiny
and a name no one can pronounce.
Unknown among the ruins of grandeur,
a pilgrim between topaz and filth.
And then I saw it.
On the horizon, beyond the bridge of centuries,
stood an enchanted castle.
My cherished palace.
Towers gleaming like guarded dreams,
mirrored waters whispering of other realms.
And there, behind an eternal glass veil,
sat my holy icon,
keeper of the visions and silence.
A beacon for those who have lost their path
but not the flame.
However, atop those gilded peaks,
behind windows lit by empty feasts and fools’ champagne,
The puppets of excess laughed,
tripping over their own void.
There, power wears the mask of the jester.
Nonetheless, between dust and mirrors,
I carried sorcery and spells.
Broken enchantments,
witchcraft writhing in blood-stained claws,
arcane revelations seeping from the soil like forgotten rites;
Tarot glyphs ignite beneath cursed fangs,
a pact inked in shadows and old essence.
A thread of fate winds unseen,
binding my name to the arcane roots.
Thus I crossed
the border between realms that do not convey,
with a sharpened awareness
of one who can no longer close the eyes—
not even to dream enchanted chimearas.
Elisabetta