Glass
Monolith
Sprawled across the desert sands
A band of horsemen reach their hands
Through the scorching golden glass
To seek the gate granting their pass.
A man cloaked in brackish dress,
Finds himself in a wretched mess.
In browsing through this hidden hatch,
A bandit skims swiftly by.
Eyeing what could be a marvelous catch,
The crook runs in and begins to vie
With the cloaked man in the lair deep beneath,
And butchers him cold with tight clenched teeth.
As he clambers his bulk through up the icy stairs,
The hatches snaps shut in their respective pairs.
The crook sees a faint glow far away,
But instead decides that he should stay
Where he is sited upon this time,
For fear of demise in this shimmering mine.
He crawls about on his soaking knees,
And gradually collapses from the callous freeze.
Years and years have passed since then,
And desert has secluded the lair within.
Till an expedition was sent out to seek
The secret beneath the golden peak.
That dune of supreme extent
Was believed to be entered through a sheltered vent.
The thundering hooves grind to a halt,
Their skins dripping with beads of salt.
The grim-faced men dismount their steeds
On a dais of billowing golden seeds.
The rays of sunlight reveal the site
Where the drenched dark men should employ their might.
Down the cove they at last descend
With the ill in the rear for the well to tend.
They slink through the dark tunnels in awe
Their faces stretched from eye to jaw.
Finding themselves in riches beyond belief
And standing upon a vast silver leaf.
On the further end of the leaf they see
What they can make out appears to be
A countless number of towering stones
Swathed wholly in ancient bones
Who ages ago entered this forbidden milieu
And hath not fled from what was soon to ensue.
Desiccated blood litters the base
Of this icy, damp, melancholy place.
They step together in a tight-knit pack
Towards their hastily made, wretched shack.
There they rest inside the cruel dark cove;
Lying in the center of the massive trove.
Dawn encroached upon the collection of bodies;
Filthy and frozen in glistening ice.
Those still alive gaze in wonder
As golden forms take shape of mice.
Masses upon masses skitter throughout the cave,
Coming ever closer with every wave.
The survivors finally grasp why they were not permitted to reap
The rewards of that were not theirs to keep.
A millennium passed by since the desert’s last encounter
With those wicked men poisoned by greed.
Since then the inner secret did not seep
Through the grasp of the desert’s mighty icy keep.
--=Yue (12/22/04)=--
